Fight or Flee
by Cossacks250
Summary: Earth is under threat once again, but this time, the bond between the monsters is under threat as well as Humanity. Will they stand or will they fall? Will they fight or flee? OC's.
1. Prologue

**Before reading this Fanfic, there are several notes I would wish to make.**

**Note 1: The Kyzua are my creation and there are several characters throughout the story that are my own and parts of the story will be based on them. Also, I do not own MVA.**

**Note 2: I will note that there are several parts in some chapters that may be slightly disturbing to some readers so if you see this symbol (XX) at the beginning of the chapter, there will be a part that will be slightly disturbing. I will put the symbol over the exact part of the chapter when one of these parts comes up. Anyone has any questions, PM me.**

If there were any perfect nights of the year, it was guaranteed to be in the summer. The sky was clear and dominated completely by an ever-stretching blackness that was filled with thousands upon thousands of stars that lit up the night sky like hundreds of lights. However, like a display of decorations, there was one thing that stood out in the night sky in brightness and that was the moon, hanging in the sky and shining brightly down onto Earth below. A cool and gentle summer breeze blew through the air. This was a perfect summer's night.

And the same thing could be said for one group of friends in Modesto. At one house near the edge of the small city, a group of friends had gathered with the owners Carl and Wendy and their daughter Susan and her friends. However, her friends were no ordinary friends.

They were monsters.

Among the crowd of about ten people in the back garden, Wendy, a medium height woman with short black hair and was dressed in a short pink top and a cream skirt, came out into the garden and the chatter in the air instantly hit her. Some of their friends, mostly women, were standing over by the pool, whispering and giggling amongst themselves as they watched a tall fish-ape hybrid with dark green skin named Link show them his fancy dive moves on the diving board. Nearby at a table, a large light blue blob with a single eyeball hovering at the top of the gelatinous mass named B.O.B was trying to feed a jelly dessert with the foods he had brought it, or her as he referred to it, and in the fields at the back of the house, a large butterfly like named Insectosaurus, or Buttflysaurus as he was now known, was lying down on the ground, watching his friend Link intently in the small party going on in the back garden of the house.

"Susan!" Wendy called stepping out into the garden and looking around for her daughter. She was bound to be out here somewhere. "Where is she?" she muttered to herself. "Susan," she called again.

"Coming, Mom," a woman from nearby replied and out from behind a couple who were talking came a young woman who was in her early twenties with short silver hair and was dressed in a usual black army uniform with a hint of orange over the pockets on the top and down the back of the trousers. On her feet was a pair of trainers. Around her middle finger was a tiny gold ring, which had been given to her to allow her to shrink back to her Human size from her original giantess height. She rushed over to her mother. "Sorry, I was talking one of my friends," she said to her mother.

"That's okay, sweetie," her mother replied. "I came out to ask you if you could help me and your father bring out the rest of the food for everyone,"

"Sure," she said with a smile and she followed her mother back inside the house to help out.

At the pool, Link, who was standing on the end of the diving board, was preparing to show the group of women another of his dives.

"Okay, ladies, this one is what I call a triple spin flip," he said to them and turned so his back was to the pool and raised his arms until they straight out in front of him. The group of women watched as he bent his knees several times and then, with all his strength, jumped into the air and curled into a ball, spinning around in mid-air three times. The women watched approvingly as their hybrid entertainer dived down towards the pool towards the pool.

THUD! "Ooooooowwww!"

Unfortunately, Link had not moved forward when he had jumped into the air and landed head first onto the diving board. Groaning, he fell sideways into the pool.

"Are you okay?" one of the women asked, giggling as she knelt down near the side of the pool.

"Argh! Yeah!" he replied, rubbing his head. Upon seeing them giggling and whispering, he tried to put on a confident face. "Yeah…uh, that was a warm up! Just a warm up," he told them. "Now, I'll show ya how It's really done,"

The women giggled. "I bet you will," one of them muttered, making her friends laugh. Undaunted, Link strutted over confidently to the diving board.

At the back door of the house, Wendy emerged holding a plate of small cakes she had baked and carried it over to the table Bob was at.

"C'mon, Janet!" she heard him say to the dessert as she set the plate down on the table. The dessert wobbled on the plate and Bob, who was holding one of the homemade sandwiches in his hand, gave a frustrated sigh. "Yeah, I know you're not hungry but can you at least try it! I mean, I spent ages making them!"

"Uh, Bob," Wendy said to him with a chuckle. His eye moved across to look at her. "I made them," she corrected him.

A pause hung between them for a moment before he moved his hand up to the side of his mouth facing the dessert.

"I know, but I'm trying to make an impression on her," he whispered to her.

Wendy rolled her eyes and walked back toward the house, passing her daughter as she came out with a bowl full of crisps. As she set them down and turned to walk back towards the house, she noticed someone else sitting over by the set up bar near the edge of the garden, all alone. It was a man with a Human body but a cockroach head with two large antennae sticking out of the top of his head.

_Wonder what's up with Doc? _She mentally asked herself as she walked over to him.

Dr Cockroach was sitting on one of the bar stool around the wooden bar, a half-empty glass of his atomic gin fizz concoction on the counter next to him, which he was careful not to give too much of a kick as last time he had down he had blown a hole open in the bar. He was staring down at a small log book of his which held several black and white pictures of men dressed in army uniforms, some with one man, others with two or more standing next to one another and posing goofily for the camera. A small batch of writing was next to each picture.

His advanced hearing picked up footsteps behind him and he looked over his shoulder at Susan as she approached him.

"Oh, hello, Susan, my dear," he greeted her.

"Hey, Doc," she replied, sitting down on the stool next to him. He resumed looking down at the log book on the counter as if completely ignoring her. "Are you okay?" she asked him, a little concerned.

"Oh, yes. Yes, I'm fine, my dear," he told her, trying to sound reassuring but she saw past it.

"Well, you're all on your own over here," she said.

"I'm just looking through my log book, my dear," he explained to her. "And I assure you, I'm fine,"

Susan did not accept this, but said nothing. She looked down at the log book with him, her eyes resting on a photograph with a young man dressed in a paratrooper's uniform, smiling at the camera. Behind him was a small tent with several boxes of ammunition around it. In the background around the tent, other soldiers with flat capped hats were busy at work. On the paper next to the photograph was the date _September 16__th__, 1944 _written in pencil.

"Just before Market Garden," Dr Cockroach said to her. "I found this very recently in one of my old boxes Monger had to confiscate when he captured me,"

"You look really young there," Susan said. "You must have been what…twenty?"

He shook his head. "No, eighteen," a pause as he took a sip from his atomic gin fizz. "One of the youngest in the paratroopers that went into Arnhem, and I was one of the luckiest to get out alive,"

"Wow," Susan said admiringly. That must have been a shocking time for him. Being only eighteen and going into combat in the worst war Humanity had ever fought with itself must have been a scary time for him, and it probably scarred him because not only with what he had seen, but because he had been lucky enough to escape from Arnhem before it fell back into the hands of the Germans.

"What exactly did you do when you were there?" she asked him.

"Oh, I was a radioman," he answered. "Worked for most nights and days, I was never really much for fighting," another pause as he took a deep breath through his nose. "I had to leave some of my best friends there when I left," another deep breath. "I always hoped I could see the ones that escaped there again…but…but they wouldn't recognize me now,"

"I'm sure they would," Susan reassured him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Doc, I mean, you've saved the Earth countless times and showed everyone you're not a monster,"

"Maybe for the Earth, but I know they wouldn't truly accept me like they had done before," he said. "I'm probably just a freak to them,"

"No you're not. Look, doc, you're just getting over-worried. I mean, look what happened to me. Everyone managed to accept me and everyone I know has done so with you guys as well,"

Dr Cockroach looked up at her friends, gazing deep into her blue eyes. She was right in a way. Before, she had been a normal Human just like him until something changed their lives and made them what they were now. He had been trying to give Humans the cockroach's ability to survive at the height of the Cold War. He had succeeded in his test, but there was a side effect and it was what made his head what he was now. Susan had been hit by a meteorite and made into a giantess and captured. Luckily for her, though, an alien invasion just weeks after she had been transformed had granted the monsters their freedom and Susan had pretty much been accepted almost instantly by her parents. It had taken the others longer to be accepted by everyone else, which had only come after the alien Gallaxhar and his army of clones had been destroyed, but they were happy for when everyone had accepted them as people and defenders of Earth.

Still, though, Dr Cockroach had not really felt fully accepted. Though many people admired him, he still always thought of how he could be fully accepted by being one of them just like Susan was, but was almost met with the same result that he thought he could never be one of them because he was half man and half insect.

Another thud from behind drew his and Susan's attention to the pool. Link had tried another dive move and this time had slammed his head against the side of the pool when he shot away from the diving board. The group of women laughed as he emerged from the pool, rubbing his head. Susan and Dr Cockroach chuckled.

"Oh dear," he said. "He'll really hurt himself one day,"

"Hey, Doc, it is Link," Susan told him. "With women around, he won't stop his dive moves,"

Dr Cockroach chuckled and gave a slight nod. "True,"

He resumed looking back down at the photograph of him in the log book. Susan saw this and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"C'mon, Doc," she said. "Don't be hard on yourself. You've been accepted fully by us, so that's something," she pointed out to him, trying to cheer him up.

"Maybe, but I find it hard how I can get everyone to just accept me rather than think of me of a freak," he replied. "I mean, Link has managed to get everyone to accept him by his strength and failed ways with the ladies, Bob's random outbursts and cuteness from his unintelligence have made him lovable and Insectosaurus is like a huge hamster. And you have your parents," he sighed. "If only I had someone like I had before,"

"Well, you have us," Susan pointed out to him. "Don't worry, Doc. We'll find a way. As long as you have us, you have respect and gratitude and…nothing's going to change that," he looked up at her deep blue eyes again questionably, but after a few moments gave into her and sighed with a smile.

"You never seem to lose hope, do you," he said to her.

"Well…I never did when I became a monster," she told him. "And I especially don't lose hope when it comes to helping my friends," she got up. "Now, c'mon, we have your favourite food out there on the table,"

He smiled at her and stood up, closing the log book and putting it in his pocket. "I could do with some ambrosia right now," he said and walked alongside his friend towards the table where everyone was gathering around.

"So how is the ring doing you?" he asked her.

"Fine, thanks," she replied with a smile. He loved it when she smiled. It was radiant and…well, the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. "Look, Doc. I promise you, and I think the others will as well, we'll help you, don't worry,"

He smiled back at her. "Thank you, Susan," he replied.

"It's okay. Now, we better hurry before Bob tries to feed everything to Janet," she joked. They laughed.

Well, even though the doctor was down, he did perk up after a while. He was glad he had his friends here to support him and be there for him. Hopefully, he, with their support, could find acceptance in everyone.


	2. The strange object

**The next day**

**Date: July 24****th**

Underground within the desert base, the monsters were busy relaxing. Last night at Susan's' parents' house had been fun and they had stayed longer than they had anticipated. Insectosaurus had given them a lift back to the base and they had fallen asleep almost instantly as soon as they had gotten in.

"One! Two! Three!"

At the, moment, they were all doing their own thing. Link was doing push ups next to the table that had been given to the monsters by Monger during their refurbishment not long after they had defeated Gallaxhar, Insectosaurus was asleep in the large chamber next to the resting area of the main room, Susan, now back in her original 50ft tall size, and Dr Cockroach, who was sitting in a chair in front of the computer screen, were seeing what was new in the world on the main computer, which kept track of all areas of the globe and warned the monsters of any monster attacks, and Bob was just talking to his dessert friend, Janet, and was telling her about how he had come to meet her even though the conversation was one sided, but still, the others decided to leave him in his own little world.

"Anything yet, doc?" Susan asked him as she looked over the computer screen as the continent of Europe slowly moved across it.

"No, nothing yet," he replied. He pressed a few switches and a list of news headlines appeared down the screen. "Let's see what is going on across the world," he muttered.

"I bet it won't be nothing much," Link, who had overheard him, piped up.

"Hey, you never know, Link," Susan pointed out to him. "Something interesting could be happening. There usually is even if It's just one thing,"

"Yeah, but it also usually doesn't tend to last long," he replied.

Dr Cockroach, meanwhile, was looking through on the many news stations the main computer was attached to around the world. Link was right though. There was nothing new on, as it had been that way for some time. Just the same old things on the deepening debt crisis across the world, protests in Russia over Vladimir Putin being the next PM of the country and what was going on in other places like Libya and Syria and Burma.

_The same usual things Humanity has always been divided over _Dr Cockroach thought disapprovingly, believing that Humanity should know better than to be divided over such inferior things.

As he looked at the main headlines, his head resting on a closed fist in a way akin to boredom, which he was in fact, the door to the room opened and Monger flew in on his jetpack.

"Morning, monsters," he greeted in his booming voice.

"Morning, Monger,"

"Hey, Monger,"

"Hi, I'm Bob,"

Monger hovered over to the computer screen, his body tipping from side to side slightly as he steered himself on his jetpack.

"Anything interesting?" he inquired, setting himself down on the edge of the control panel next to Dr Cockroach.

"No, nothing," Dr Cockroach replied, facing him and shaking his head. "Same old stuff as usual, Monger,"

"I thought it would be," he replied.

"Why did you bother asking then?" Link asked him.

"Well, something new might come up,"

"Thank you," Susan said and Link gave her an annoyed look but said nothing. Dr Cockroach chuckled and shook his and went back to looking at what was on the main computer screen and began searching through it again, but there was nothing much of interest.

Just then, one of the main blast doors to the room opened and everyone in the room, aside from Insectosaurus who was still asleep, looked over to the door to see a scientist who looked to be in his early forties with a white lab coat and jeans with a bald head enter the room.

"General Monger," he called, waving his arm. Monger hovered over to him.

"What is it, Gerald?" he asked.

"Um…sir, we've just had a report from the scientists at the telescope array in Hawaii," he explained. "They've found something,"

"What?" Monger inquired.

"Can I use the main computer, please?" he asked the doctor.

"Oh, yes, of course," Dr Cockroach replied politely and got out of the seat. Susan walked over to the two and carried them over, gently setting them down kin the front of the control panel.

"Thank you, Miss Murphy," Gerald said to her and he sat down in the chair and types in a code. Everyone, even bob and Link, who came over, watched.

The image on the computer screen from a flat screen overview of the Earth to a view of the solar system. At the centre of the screen was a yellow ball with the word _Sun _below it. Nine rings were around the Sun, each one further out from it than the last. On each line was a white ball which had the word of the planet below it.

"This is what they've found," Gerald said.

He typed in a small code, reading it off the back of his hand as he had had no time to write it down on paper because it had been sent to him urgently from the telescope array. The image zoomed in towards the space between the fifth and sixth rings. Jupiter and Saturn. It was then a green line had appeared, going right out to the edge of the screen, and probably further if they zoomed out far enough. It came in a kind of arc, akin to that of a meteorite, but the end of the green line that they could see was directly between the two great planets.

"They picked this up some time ago, sir," Gerald said.

"Cool, is this a game?" Bob asked excitedly as he oozed over towards the screen like an eager child.

"No, Bob, it isn't," Dr Cockroach told him and Bob gave a disappointed 'aaawww!' and oozed off sulkily. Monger, who had taken off his jet pack and set it down on the floor, stifled a chuckle and walked over to the computer screen, 'hmming' as he looked at it. What was this thing on the screen?"

"Have they identified it?" he asked.

"Well…uh…no, sir," Gerald answered hesitantly. "But we do believe it is a meteorite, though," he quickly added.

"Why d'you think it could be a meteorite?" Link asked him.

"Well, it could be," Dr Cockroach piped up before Gerald could reply. "In fact, it has to be. Look at the pattern in which it is travelling," he pointed at the screen.

"What if it's an alien ship?" Susan suggested. "I mean, it could be,"

"Well if it is, then they probably don't know about Earth," Link replied. "I mean, just saying if it is, they're not moving towards us,"

"He does have a point," Gerald said. "I believe it is a meteorite,"

"Well, keep an eye on it just in case," Monger said to him. "It should head off soon unless a planet draws it in,"

"Hopefully, it won't be ours," Link muttered.

"No, it won't, Link," Dr Cockroach reassured him. "Jupiter'll probably absorb it soon. It'll be exciting to watch just like those other meteorites had done in 1994,"

"Alright, doc, no need to fall in love with a floating rock," Link commented and Dr Cockroach gave him a slight glare.

"Well, I'll go check and see if we've received anything else on this thing," he said, pressing the backspace key, changing the image on the screen back to an overview of the world, and getting up from the seat.

"Keep us updated," Monger told him.

"Yes, sir, general,"


	3. Stargazing

**Later that night**

Another clear night had taken over the sky over the desert base, the blackness stretching on farther than the eye could see in all directions. Across it were thousands upon thousands of stars that shined brightly in the sky, though, as with the night before, all were dominated by the moon, which shone brightly in the night sky, lighting up the almost completely empty landscape around the desert base, making the mountains loom over the great flat expanse of sand, shrub and rock like great giants. The buildings of the desert base were illuminated by the moon's brightness shining down on them.

Outside in the desert sands, a figure was moving about on the tarmac of the airfield at the base, the enormous hangers just a few hundred metres away from him. He was holding a long cylindrical object on a kind of tripod. It was Dr Cockroach and what he was holding was a telescope. So what was he doing out here?

Oh, yes, of course. Star gazing. A slight meteor shower was going to be visible tonight. It would only last for a minute or so, but it would be worth it to come out and watch it. The doctor set up his telescope and began peering through it, looking up at the ever stretching blackness of space and began to search among the stars for any incoming meteorites.

"Where are you?" he muttered to himself eagerly. "C'mon, show yourselves,"

For about thirty seconds he searched until the telescope finally rested on several streaks across the sky that appeared all of a sudden. Smiling, he withdrew himself from the telescope and looked up at the sky, watching more streaks shoot across it, each one like a ray of hope in the darkness and letting the world know that there was going to be a new day. He sighed in admiration of the beauty of the meteors. This was the beautiful side of space, the natural side of the universe.

"Hey, doc,"

Dr Cockroach looked over his shoulder to see a tall figure walking towards him. As she came into the moonlight, he saw it was Susan. Her silver hair shone brightly like a star.

"Hello, Susan," he greeted warmly, smiling at her as she sat down beside him. The two stared up at the sky, watching the meteors as they streaked overhead. "It's beautiful isn't it," he said.

"Yeah," she replied. "I've always loved watching the stars and meteor showers. It makes me feel happy,"

"Same here," he crawled up her leg and sat on her knee. "It makes me feel at peace and…well," he gave a nervous laugh. "Just seems to remove the problems that I face, and doesn't make them seem as bad as they look,"

She nodded and the two watched as more meteors streaked overhead, appearing for a split second and then disappearing in the blink of an eye. Even though each one was brief, it was enough to fill the two with a happy sensation that made them feel at peace.

"Oh, look!" Susan said all of a sudden and pointed up at the sky. The two looked to see a shooting star, a little closer than before, shoot overhead like a rocket. It was there one minute and then, like all the others it disappeared.

"Wow, that was a close one," Dr Cockroach said. Susan nodded in agreement and the two continued to watch the stars fly overhead.

Dr Cockroach, however, looked up at Susan and could not help but admire her. Her deep blue eyes and her silver hair really made her beautiful, no doubt the most beautiful person he had ever met. She was a kind and generous person and she was caring and always there for him, like he was there for her, and looking at her under the stars made this scene very romantic.

"Um…Susan?" the doctor inquired.

"Yes?" she replied, looking down at him.

"I…um," he began, quickly finding himself stuttering a little. "I…I just…w-wanted to say," he took a deep breath. "You look really beautiful,"

She blushed. "Thanks, doc," she replied and picked him up and placed him on her shoulder. For a moment, they were lost in staring at each other as if they were in a trance.

Inside Dr Cockroach's head, a voice was talking to him.

_Go on, kiss her! _It said to him. _It's a perfect moment!_

And it was. He found himself leaning in towards her slightly. Surprisingly, she was doing the same. Their eyes closed slightly and their mouths parted a little, ready to meet.

_"Alright, lovers, c'mon! Bed time!" _a familiar voice boomed out from an intercom back at the base, though it sounded like it was right next to them.

The two gritted their teeth, annoyed at having their moment spoiled, and withdrew from each other.

"Monger," they said in unison.

Dr Cockroach crawled down Susan's arm and jumped onto the ground.

"Sorry if I embarrassed you," he said to her.

"It's fine, you haven't," she replied. "Though, I think Monger'll spread this around with the others,"

"Oh, what fun," Dr Cockroach said sarcastically as he took the scope off the tripod and picked the two up. "Well, we best get inside,"

She nodded and the two walked back towards the base. Overhead, the last of the meteors streaked across the sky, quickly disappearing into the blackness, bringing an end to the great moment of beauty the universe could show the world.


	4. A worsening crisis

**The next day**

In the main room of the monsters living quarters, a sense of embarrassment was in the air. The reason: Link was busy laughing his head off as Monger told him that Susan and Dr Cockroach had come close to kissing outside last night and Link had been teasing them about it this morning. Insectosaurus and Bob were also watching, but Bob had forgotten already what they were laughing about several times, but Susan and Dr Cockroach had decided not to remind him.

"Lovebirds!" Link said in a kind of sing-song voice.

Dr Cockroach and Susan, who were sitting on the large sofa in the room, blushed a little in both embarrassment and annoyance at their friend.

"Shut up, Link!" Dr Cockroach replied.

He just kept on laughing and joking about with Monger. "So was it romantic?" he asked in a fake eager voice.

"I think it was," Monger replied. "So did you two feel hot when you were about to kiss?" he asked.

Link just burst out laughing and fell on the floor, holding his sides and kicking his legs madly. Susan and Dr Cockroach blushed a little more and tried to ignore them, though they did give each other small smiles. Even though they were on the receiving end of this joking, they did admit mentally to each other that it was quite funny at the same time.

"What are we laughing about?" Bob asked innocently, having forgotten once again what they were laughing about.

"O-o-oh, Bob," Link breathed, sitting up and taking a deep breath. "You gotta listen more, man," he told his blob friend.

"Janet wants to know as well," he said, pulling her out of nowhere and holding her up. "C'mon, she wants to know as well what we're laughing about,"

Monger rolled his eyes in an 'of course' kind of manner, expecting this from Bob. Susan and Dr Cockroach looked at each other. She was laughing a little.

"What?" he asked.

"Y-you have to admit with them, i-it is funny," she said.

"Oh, they're getting closer!" they heard Monger say. The two looked over at them to see Monger, Link, Bob and Insecto looking at them, trying not to laugh.

"Well, c'mon, doc, you gonna kiss her?" Link asked in a fake eagerly voice. "Don't let us interrupt ya,"

He went to reply but paused for a moment and then sighed. "Very funny, you lot," he said blankly, though he was starting to admit that this was quite funny.

"Right, I better go and check and see if I've received anything from head office," Monger said and he grabbed his jetpack, which he had left on the floor next to the computer screen, and put it on. As he hovered up into the air, he boomed: "See ya, monsters,"

"Yeah, see you, Monger," they replied.

"Oh, and remember," he stopped in mid-air near a corridor opening on the wall and turned back to look at Susan and Dr Cockroach. "You two play nicely," he said jokingly.

They glared at him and he had to move quick to avoid Susan throwing one of the pillows on the sofa at him. Link, however, fell onto the floor, pounding it hard as he laughed hysterically. Chuckling to himself, Monger hovered down into the corridor, which was about fifty feet long and split off into a T intersection at the end. Several doors were lined along the walls.

"Oh, I made a good comedian," he muttered to himself as he took off the jetpack and walked down the corridor to the end, turning right. There was a door with the words: **General Monger **written on the door. His office. He opened it and walked inside.

His office was a small rectangular-like shaped room with a desk a few feet from the end wall, a single chair behind the desk. A light with a kind of lantern shade was around the light bulb. On the left wall was a portrait of him in an army uniform, about twenty five years younger, standing in a desert-like landscape with several buildings in the background. That was a picture of him that had been taken when he had been appointed head of the desert base after the previous head had retired. Scattered over the desk were several report papers on recent activity around the world that might need the monsters' attention. An old fashioned telephone was on the desk as well and next to that was a cup of espresso coffee, always one there for him every morning.

Monger took off his jetpack and placed it on the floor in the corner of the room and walked over to his desk.

"Time to go over papers," he said as he sat down on the chair and, picking up the papers in one hand and his coffee in the other, began to go over them.

It was just the same old things. An apparent yeti sighting in Tibet, something which they had received a lot but most had turned out to be hoaxes, another apparent sighting of this El Chupacabra in Puerto Rico after it had attacked a farmer's chickens. Amongst all this was a paper with the headline: _'Global debt crisis worsening?' _written across it.

"Oh dear," Monger muttered to himself as he began to read the paper. "Well…thank God they're not leaving it to the last mi-"

BANG! The door to his office flew open, making Monger jump, causing him to throw his coffee across the floor, along with the cup, which smashed loudly as it flew out of his hand to the floor. The paper flew across the desk, throwing the other reports off the desk to the floor. Standing in the doorway was Gerald, though this time his face was red from exhaustion and sweat was dripping down his forehead and he was breathing heavily.

"What the…?" Monger blurted out, shocked and angry. "Gerald, what in God's name is wrong with you!" he demanded. "Look what you made me do!"

"G-g-general," he gasped. He took a deep breath and leaned against the door panel for a moment before he had managed to regain his breath and he stepped forward into the office up to Monger's desk. "W-we-you better…come and…see this," he said.

"See what?" Monger asked, confused.

"Come and look," Gerald breathed.

Confused, Monger got up and followed Gerald out of the office and down the corridor towards the left end of the T intersection of the corridor to a door at the end. They burst through it and ran through another corridor, which was shorter than the last and had windows along the sides, giving anyone walking down it a view of the large main chamber in which to access the monsters' rooms and many platforms moving from one part to another of the chamber and people that looked like ants from this height working. At the end of the corridor was another door which opened automatically for the two, revealing a large circular shaped room, which was at the top of the tower in the middle of the main chamber, with large windows along the walls, giving a view of the chamber to the workers inside. In the middle of the room was a large cylindrical shaped tube that went down through the tower to the bottom of it. Around the room, scientists and soldiers and workers were busy at work, though some were working at a busier pace than usual as if they were alarmed about something.

"Over here, sir," Gerald said to Monger, leading him over to a computer panel with a large screen in the middle of it along the wall on the left side of the room.

"What is it you have to show me, Gerald?" Monger asked.

"Well, sir," Gerald began, typing in a code on the control panel that was connected to the computer panel screen. "D'you remember yesterday when we found that comet on the computer screen in the monster's lounge?" he asked. Monger nodded. "Well…we thought it would pass through in the usual orbital pattern a comet does," he finished typing in the code and the computer screen lit up to life. Gerald looked up at Monger worryingly. "We were wrong," he said.

Monger went a little wide-eyed. "What do you mean?" he asked in a concerned voice.

Gerald responded by pointing at the computer screen as the overview of the solar system appeared on it again. Gerald pressed a button the control panel. A green line in a kind of arc shape appeared on it, the same one Monger had seen yesterday. It was still the same, stopping right in between Jupiter and Saturn.

"This is the comet's arc when we saw it yesterday," he explained. He pressed the button several times, each time the green line continuing in It's ark between the planets and away towards the edge of the solar system.

It was when he had pressed it five times that Monger saw a change. The green line, as it was about to go past Mars, had suddenly made a U turn and moved almost back the way it had come, only this time it was coming towards Earth.

"What the Hell?" he said, aghast.

"That was it last night," Gerald said to Monger. He pressed the button again and it had moved even closer, a lot closer. "And this was it this morning when we checked about an hour ago, and there's no doubt It's been moving closer,"

Monger stared wide-eyed at the screen. The green line was now almost three quarters of the way between Mars and Earth. It must have been about 20,000, maybe 22,000 or 23,000 miles from Earth, way closer than the Earth's moon and this was an hour ago. This thing must be a lot closer now, but really stuck out in his mind was that there was almost no way this could be a meteorite.

"Have you been able to identify this thing?" he asked.

"No, sir," Gerald replied. "Our satellites have been unable to pick this thing up, but…if it is a comet, we have estimated a time of impact then we have estimated that a time of impact could be later on today, but…but we are having doubts,"

"So am I," Monger replied. "I don't think this is a meteorite. This has to be something else,"

"That's what we think, sir, but what exactly we don't know. We'll just have to wait until later on today when we can lock onto it with our satellites and then we can finally report back to you,"

"Excuse me, sir," a young worker, of about twenty three with black hair and dressed in a kind of white bodysuit all workers had to wear in the base, walked over. "Sorry, general, but you have a phone call from the president,"

Monger and Gerald looked at each other for a moment, their minds thinking of the same thing, before he nodded.

"Alright, thanks," he replied and followed the worker over to another control panel on the other side of the room.

"Says It's urgent," the worker said. Monger took the phone and held it up near his ear.

"Hey, Mr President," he said. A pause as the president began to speak. "Yeah, we've picked it up as well. We don't know what it is," another pause for a few moments. When he finished speaking, Monger went a little wide-eyed. "What you mean…?" he said, quickly trailing off. After another pause for about two seconds, he slammed his hand onto his forehead, going wide-eyed and exhaling in shock. "Good Lord,"

He almost fell over. Gerald, who had heard him speaking, looked over with worry. By the tone of his voice, this was serious and no doubt about this thing as well.

"Right, Mr President, I'm on my way," Monger said. "Yes, sir," he added and he put the phone down. "Oh, God!" he breathed, rubbing his hand down his face.

"Is everything alright, general?" Gerald asked him as he walked over.

"I wish," he replied lowly. "I've just heard from the president. This has just been upgraded to a cautious level in the Pentagon," he paused for a moment, looking around slightly as if he was lost. "I gotta go," he said to Gerald and he walked quickly over to the corridor, the door opening automatically for him.

Gerald watched him go with a worried expression on his face and looked back at the computer screen. He walked back over to it and pressed the button again. The green line shot forward a little more. Now it was a bit closer, probably about 14,000 miles above Earth and closing.

"I hope we find out what this thing is soon," he muttered under his breath.


	5. Identifying

**Six hours later**

**White House underground base, Washington DC**

If there was one thing Monger hated feeling, it was fear. That and sadness, but, unfortunately, that was just a part of life and everyone would feel it at least once in their life, whether they liked it or not. Right now, that feeling of fear was overwhelming him and had been for the past six hours since he had left the desert base. What the president had called him over had really worried him and now more of it was about to come.

The large blast doors to the underground base's main hall opened as Monger approached them, revealing to him the large oval shaped room which had a large oval shaped table with a flat overview of the world on it. Around the walls were several large computer screens with control panels underneath them in which several officials were busy at work on. Around the central table was President Hathaway, the heads of the army, navy, air force, the secretary of defence, head of the CIA and several advisors. Another man with short black hair and was dressed in a buttoned up t-shirt and jeans was sitting around the table as well.

As Monger entered, they all looked up at him, revealing the looks of anxiousness on their faces. Monger walked down the steps to the bottom and took a seat up at the table. One of the generals moved away from him a little, giving him a slight glare. Monger just ignored him. The general was the one that had been hit by the tranquilizer dart when he referred to the name of the desert base after Monger had stated the mere mention of the name was a general offence and he still held a grudge against Monger for that.

"Glad you could join us, general," Hathaway said to Monger.

"Thank you, Mr President," he replied.

"Now," Hathaway began, adjusting his glasses a little. "As you all know, we have all gathered here in an extraordinary, but also a fearful time. It was earlier on yesterday that we discovered an unidentified object, at first believed to be a comet, going through the solar system. Unfortunately, we were wrong. Now, Mr Perkins from the Allen Telescope Array here can explain everything else," he finished.

"Thank you, Mr President," the scientist, who was sitting opposite Monger, said, getting up from his seat. "As you know, this unidentified object has made movements unlike that of an asteroid. Therefore, me and the observers from the array have come to the conclusion that…" he paused for a moment, finding it slightly difficult to tell them that what he and the observers believed that this thing was what they had faced before. "It's…It's a craft of an intelligent source,"

Upon hearing those words, everyone around the table looked at each other nervously. An intelligent source? This was bound not to be good because they had faced this threat a year before when Gallaxhar, an alien in command of a large ship, had threatened to take over Earth and destroy Humanity. It was only by the time and the heroicness of the monster team that he had been killed and his ship and plans to take over Earth were destroyed. However, this experience with him had taught Humanity one important lesson: Aliens were bound to be hostile and so they had to prepare plans for what they were to do if they were to contact a hostile alien like Gallaxhar again.

President Hathaway had wanted to use nuclear weapons against the next alien race that came across Earth, but the other leaders had overruled him on such a decision because they did not know if they would work and it would likely destroy Earth in the process. After that, his advisors had said he had to try and think of an alternative peaceful way to contact the next alien race and, for some reason, he had come up with very strange ways.

"If it is an intelligent source," the head of the army, a middle aged man of about fifty five with brown hair, though it was grey in some parts, and was dressed in an army general's uniform, said. "What are we to do?" he asked.

"Well, we must consider peaceful contact first," Mr Perkins replied. "Mr President, didn't you have a way to contact them?" he asked.

"Well, I did," he replied lowly in an annoyed tone and his eyes turned towards his secretary of defence, a man of about sixty with grey hair and was dressed in a suit. "But, unfortunately, I had to change it,"

Mr Perkins looked over at the secretary of defence with a confused look on his face.

"He wanted to do his Axel F. dance to the aliens if they were to make contact again," the secretary explained. "But I said that wasn't the best option because that's probably what annoyed that robot that landed on Earth last time,"

"What, Axel F is good," Hathaway told him.

"Yes, but, Mr President, I have serious doubts that the aliens will be frogs riding about on motorbikes making ding-ding noises,"

"They could be," Hathaway muttered.

The secretary ignored him. "In any case, we need to try and contact them peacefully," he said to Mr Perkins. "But if they're hostile, general," he looked over at Monger, along with pretty much everyone else. "We can only hope that your monsters'll be able to find a weakness in them,"

Monger nodded. "Just wondering, though: why d'you guys think It's from an intelligent source?" he asked.

"Because It's stopped," Mr Perkins answered. "About 5,000 miles above the Earth,"

Everyone looked at each other, fear lingering in their eyes. If it had stopped, then it had to be from an intelligent source.

"I suggest we have all satellites lock onto this thing," one of the scientists, a man in his late twenties with blonde hair and dressed in jeans and a buttoned up t-shirt piped up. "Maybe we can spy on this alien craft and see exactly what they get up to,"

Mr Perkins nodded. "Agreed," he replied.


	6. Hearing them

**Meanwhile, in Modesto**

Just down the road that led away from the Murphy house was where a small family of a husband and wife and their child, or children now as they had just recently had a baby boy, lived. The husband was called Jacob, his wife Sally, their daughter Michelle and her new baby brother Alex. They were a happy family and they were all happy now that they had a new addition to their family. They were good friends with the Murphy family and the little girl, Michelle, had made a new friend at last year's Halloween when she had kindly been given a swirly pop by Dr Cockroach, something which had made her very happy and she had really liked him for doing that kind for her.

At the moment, Michelle, a young girl of about seven with black hair, green eyes and was wearing a red top and a pair of jeans and white slip on shoes, was sitting on the floor in the hallway of her house, holding a small toy bear in one hand and a fake bottle in the other. On the drawer behind her was her brother's baby monitor. At the moment, he was upstairs, their mother putting him to bed. Her father was at work in San Francisco.

"There you, Candy," Michelle said as she fake fed her bear the bottle. "Eat it all up,"

Footsteps from the stairs near the doorway filled the air. Michelle looked up to see her mother, a young woman of about thirty with shoulder length black hair, blue eyes and was dressed in a yellow top and a pair of jeans, came down.

"Hey, baby," she greeted her daughter with a smile.

"Hi, mommy," she replied.

"You having fun?"

"Yeah, I'm just feeding Candy,"

"Oh, that's good. Well, play nice. I'm just going to take the washing outside,"

"Okay mommy,"

Her mother walked past her, switching on the baby monitor, and walked into the kitchen at the end and picked up a basket of washing and carried it outside. Michelle went back to fake feeding her bear.

"That's good, Candy," she said approvingly to her toy bear. "I'm really proud of y-"

_BEEP! BEEP! _"Huh?"

Michelle looked up at the baby monitor on the drawer behind her. At the moment, static was all that was coming out of it, but she could have sworn two loud beeping noises had come out of it just now. Curious, she stood up and, having to stand on her tiptoes, reached out and took the baby monitor in her hand. She stared at it for a moment, thinking that the noise was going to come out of it again, but it did not.

"What was that noise?" she asked as she put her ear near it, giving it a little shake.

_BEEP! _She gasped loudly and jumped, almost dropping it and her bear on the floor. She stared at it with wide-eyes, thinking that something was going to happen.

Then, another noise came out of it, though…it…it was something different. It was not like anything she had heard before. Not the noise of any animal she knew of, or maybe it was and she had just never heard it before. Vaguely, to her, it sounded like talking, but…but in a different language. It was hard though because it was slightly fuzzed out by the static.

A little shocked and excited, she rushed down the hallway and through the kitchen and out the backdoor into the garden where her mother was hanging the washing up on a clothesline near the garden shed.

"Mommy! Mommy!" she called. Her mother turned to see her daughter rushing up to her.

"Michelle, dear, what is it?" she asked, concerned.

"I heard something out of Alex's baby monitor," she replied, holding it up to her.

"What is he awake?"

"No, it was something…weird,"

Sally gave her daughter a confused look and took the baby monitor from her and put her ear to it. Sure enough, the talking came out of it again. She went wide-eyed and dropped it, staring at with a heavy breath. She had never heard anything like it before?

"What is it, mommy?" Michelle asked her.

Her mother shook her head. "I don't know, baby," she answered as she gingerly knelt down and picked up the baby monitor again, the talking coming out of it at once.

From what Sally could hear, it was a different language from what she had ever heard, some parts of it did not even sound like proper talking. Although she could make out they were speaking with the usual alphabetical letters that Humans used, some parts were mixed in with growls and slight roars and barks. Some were even strangled talking. What was this? More importantly: who was speaking it?

"Mommy, I think you can hear it clearer if you go higher," Michelle said, realising that she could hear it better from her mother's height than when she was holding it.

Sally looked at the baby monitor for a moment as if lost in a trance, but thinking about what her daughter had said to her. Slowly, she raised her hand higher and the talking became clearer. She stood on her tiptoes and now she could make out two different voices, maybe three. It was hard to tell considering the fact that she had never heard any language like this before and the talking all sounded the same. How could she hold it higher?

"Come here, Michelle," she said to her daughter, who walked over and she picked her up, handing her the baby monitor. Standing on her tiptoes, she held her daughter up and her daughter raised her arm with the baby monitor as high as it could go, the voices now coming out of it clearly.

_"Kisharnia! Ulókīnar kin-syǎyung,"_

_"Mishonk. Brokar ulam mukkah_-(this part they could not make out as it was mixed in with a kind of growl)-_Hujǎ nova,"_

CLICK! And that was the end of it. The voices just cut off instantly. Static was all that came out of it now.

Michelle and her mother looked at each other with wide-eyes. What they had just heard was something completely knew to them. The question was: What was it?


	7. The mothership

**Meanwhile, back at the desert base**

"Alrighty,"

At the moment at the underground base, things were back to normal after the hilarious episodes this morning. Link and Bob were playing cards, with Bob's dessert next to Link, as he had gotten her to spy on Link's cards, but Link had used this to his advantage, as well as that he had Insectosaurus looking at Bobs' cards from behind him, Dr Cockroach was on the main computer, looking up something to do with science, and Susan was lying down on the sofa, resting her eyes her head on one of the pillows.

Bob leaned his face near the edge of his cards. "Okay Janet, what does Link have?" he whispered not so discretely to the dessert.

Link, using his foot, gave the table leg a slight wobble so it looked like the dessert was replying to him. Bob gave it a smile and nodded and looked up at Link.

"Alright, Link, do you have any sixes?" he asked.

Link stifled a laugh. "Nope," he replied. He looked past Bob at Insecto, who raised and brought down It's side legs onto the floor, each time meaning what type of cards Bob had. Slam-_one_. Slam-_two_. A pause. "D'you have any twos?" Link asked confidently.

Bobs' eye went wide and looked at his hybrid friend to his cards. "Yes, I do!" he said, slamming his cards down onto the table. "Seriously, how do you do this? You should be like…an international card player or something,"

Link chuckled and placed his hands on the back of his neck, joining them together at the fingers. "Yep, I should,"

"Could you be quiet, please?" Dr Cockroach snapped at them from the computer. "I am trying to think here and I cannot do it with you lot being noisy,"

"Sorry, grandpa," Link replied, drawing a glare from Dr Cockroach. "Maybe you should wake up Susan," he grinned and nodded his head towards Susan. "See if she'll help ya,"

Insecto let out a light roar and Link laughed. "Yeah," he said. "Good one, Insecto!" he complimented. He laughed, Bob joining in for a moment and then stopping.

"What are we laughing about?" he asked. He looked towards Dr Cockroach. "Doc, what are we laughing about?"

Dr Cockroach rolled his eyes. "Nothing, Bob," he told him.

A yawn from the sofa drew everyone's gaze and they saw Susan sit up on the sofa, rubbing her eyes and stretching.

"S-s-sorry," she yawned. She gave a grunt and sat upright. "Everyone alright?" she inquired.

"Yeah, we're fine," Link replied. "Just annoyin' the doc,"

"Oh, now c'mon, Link," she said. "Don't be mean to him,"

"Thank you," Dr Cockroach piped up from the computer.

Link just raised his eyes and looked back at Bob. "Alright, Bob. Another game?" he inquired, sweeping up the cards in his hand.

"Yeah, and this time, I'm gonna mop the floor with you," his gelatinous friend replied confidently.

"Oh, I wouldn't count on that," Link muttered.

Susan just rolled her eyes and looked up at the large clock on the wall above one of the large blast door entrances to the room. It was about three in the afternoon, her having been asleep for some time, or 1500 hours as Monger would say. Speaking of which…

"Hey guys," she said and the others looked at her. "Where's Monger?"

Link shrugged. "Dunno," he answered.

"He said he would contact us when he was on his way back," Dr Cockroach said. "At least that's what the scientist who came to tell us said. We don't know where he's gone,"

"Not at all?"

"Nah," Link said to Susan. "This scientist just came in just after you fell asleep and said that Monger had rushed off somewhere, but he didn't know where because he hadn't been to-"

"_Incoming message!" _the computer's voice said all of a sudden, drawing everyone's gaze to it. _"Incoming message. Source: General Monger,"_

A second later, the advice on science on the computer screen suddenly changed to a completely black, blank screen. For a moment, it stayed that way, the monsters looking at each with confused looks. Then, the screen lit up to lifer again, only this time general Monger was on the screen. Behind him was the large underground base at the White House in Washington DC.

_"Hey, monsters," _he greeted in an unhappy/worried tone.

"Monger!" Dr Cockroach exclaimed. The others came over. "W-where are you?"

_"I'm at the underground base in DC, just under the White House,"_ he replied. _"Sorry I couldn't tell you because I had to come here as soon as possible,"_

"Why,…what's going on?" Susan asked him.

_"Well…" _Monger began, a look of uncertainty etching across his face. It was going to be hard explaining this to them, but they had a right to know. _"Well," _he said again after a moment's pause. _"Remember yesterday when we were told of that comet headed towards Earth?" _he reminded them and they nodded. _"It's…I was told earlier that it had been heading off towards the edge of the solar system until…" _he trailed off, though the others were beginning to get a nasty feeling in their gut about what he was trying to tell them.

"What…are you saying…that the comet is headed towards Earth?" Susan asked worryingly.

"_Your partly right there, Ginormica," _he told her. _"Only this thing isn't a comet or a meteorite. We believe it to be something from an intelligent source,"_

Upon saying that last sentence, the monsters looked at each other uneasily. An intelligent source? That could be very bad. The last time they had come up against an intelligent source was with Gallaxhar and he had wanted to destroy Earth and Humanity. They were beginning to get a feeling of déjà vu inside them, knowing that what had happened a year ago could happen again.

"_In anyhow," _Monger continued, snapping the monsters out of their uneasy looks at each other. _"The Pentagon has gone to DEFCON 3, meaning things could get serious from here on out,"_

"Is DEFCON 3 that serious of a level?" Link inquired, to which Monger nodded at.

"_DEFCON 3 is when the US has to be on alert for a possible attack," _he explained. _"Last time we went to DEFCON 3 was 9/11, just under ten years ago," _he sighed. _"We can only hope that this DEFCON 3 won't go any higher,"_

The others nodded. Even though they had fought against aliens before, there was still a chance they could be beaten. Hopefully, this alien race would be peaceful and bring new technology and good will.

"So…what has the government got prepared for this?" Dr Cockroach asked Monger.

"_Well, for the moment, their keeping it quiet," _Monger replied. _"The president's giving a speech which he intends to send to the object, which has stopped just above the Earth. He's warned other governments of this and, so far, they're keeping this quiet from their people. Also, we've got scientists trying to contact the object with prime numbers, but, so far, they haven't had any luck,"_

A voice from off screen called for Monger and he nodded and told the monsters to wait a minute and that he would be back.

"Prime numbers?" Susan asked. "Why would they contact them with prime numbers?"

"Prime numbers is the universal language, my dear," Dr Cockroach answered her. He sighed and looked up at the screen. "I don't like what Monger had told us," he said.

"Why?" Bob asked him. "For all we know, they could be good aliens,"

Dr Cockroach shook his head. "I doubt it very much," he replied. "If there's one thing I know, is that there is no, or at the least, very little a link between science and technology and moral conduct. I fear they're going to attack us,"

"You think we could go to war with 'em?" Link asked him. "Why?"

"Because, Link, Intelligence is often the sign of a predator," Dr Cockroach explained, looking at his friends. "I mean, look at Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 40s. Plus, I can remember Steven Hawking saying once some time ago that advanced aliens were likely to be hostile because they would look to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach," he looked back up at the screen, watching as a few workers in the background moved about on the computers. "We could find ourselves at war soon,"

"I hope that won't happen," Susan muttered.

_"Alright, I'm back," _Monger said as he reappeared on the computer screen. _"Sorry, guys. I was just told that the president has sent his peace message to the object and that other leaders have done the same," _he sighed. _"Let's hope we get a rep-"_

"_General!"_ a voice exclaimed from the background. Monger raised his computer screen and looked over behind him to see a worker standing up next to his seat and looking over at him, a shocked look on his face. _"We've managed to lock on with our satellites,"_

Monger nodded. _"Alright, put it up on the screen," _he ordered.

The worker nodded and set about to put the images from the satellite onto the main computer screens along the walls. Monger looked back the monsters.

_"We'll get our first look at this thing," _he said.

_"There we go, sir," _the worker replied. _"Images being uploaded now," _

Monger looked over his shoulder up at the large computer screens along the wall, which what everyone else in the room was doing. They all lit up for a moment, going onto static. Then, they flickered and an image of space appeared on each one, the ever-stretching blackness of the universe filled with thousands of upon thousands of stars covering most of the background of the image. Some had an image of Earth on them, some of these having part of the screen with Earth, others with almost the whole of the screen showing Earth.

It was then everyone saw it. A few gasped, some swore under their breaths. Muttering broke out among those in the room. Monger placed his hand on his head. Susan went wide-eyed, as did Dr Cockroach. Link whispered: "Whoa!" under his breath. Bob's mouth fell open in shock as he covered the jello with his hand. Insectosaurus gave a slight low, shocked/amazed sounding roar.

**High above the Earth**

What they were all staring at was something they had never seen before, mainly because of It's size rather than It's shape. This thing was literally…it…it…it overly defined gigantic. Even gigantic would be a small word in describing the size of it!

It was huge! A lot bigger than anything the monsters, or pretty much anyone had ever seen, that moved. The size of it must have been…at least a third of the size of Australia, maybe even more! The shape of was almost completely spherical, but sticking out of the bottom of the back of the object were four enormous long spires, each one probably being the length of several Manhattan islands all put together into one, with three large circular engine holes, each about the size of the North Sea, above the spires. Another four large spires were sticking out of the top of the back of the ship, though they were pointing diagonally upwards. On the top of the object, which was flat, were about a hundred long mechanical towers, each one about three quarters of the length of one of the spires. Held within them were many large diamond-like shaped ships. Their exact size was hard to tell, but compared to the main ship, they were miniscule, only tiny dots compared to it. The entire main ship was a kind of grey/silver colour with a neon light green haze emanating out of each of the engines.

This was an alien mother ship, way bigger than the one Gallaxhar had had, the size of that ship being only about a mile, maybe two or three at the most.

This was something completely different, _and _a lot more terrifying.


	8. EMP

Inside the underground base of the White House, a sense of unease and fear had gripped those inside it, just as it had for those in the underground desert base where the monsters were. Monger, standing next to the table where a computer screen had risen out of, the monsters on it, placed his hand on his head, staring at the computer screen that was feeding the satellite image of the alien craft to the computer screens with a mixture of awe, shock and fear.

"My God!" he breathed, shaking his head slightly. "I've never seen anything on that size before,"

_"I don't think any of us have, Monger," _Dr Cockroach replied, his voice quivering slightly, just simply overcome with the level of shock from looking at this thing.

"_I hope we're gonna be okay," _Link piped up, his voice also very uneasy.

The others nodded in agreement, lost in staring at this thing as if it had put them in a trance. Seeing something that was a lot bigger than what you would normally expect is mind boggling enough, but seeing something that was about one third the size of Australia and had hundreds of diamond shaped ships, which, although were tiny dots compared to the main ship, were bound to be enormous themselves! Exactly how big in size though was hard to tell.

After a moment, Monger shook his head a little as if breaking himself out of the trance that looking at this enormous alien ship was causing.

"Alright," he said, causing a few heads in the underground room to turn towards him. "W-where's the president?" he asked.

Just then, as if on cue, the door to the room burst open and Monger shot round to see President Hathaway leaning forward on the railing, gripping it tightly and breathing heavily, the door to the corridor behind him closing, almost doing so until it opened again when another man ran out, also breathing heavily from the running. It was Mr Perkins. He stumbled forward and gripped the railing as hard as he could to keep himself upright.

"G-g-gen-general!" Mr Perkins gasped as he raised his head, looking down at Monger. His face was red, his t-shirt was open and crumpled and sweat was pouring down his head.

"Mr President! What is it?" Monger asked in a concerned tone.

"W-w-w-we…" the president began, pausing to take a deep breath. "We saw…the alien…s-ship!"

"We've got it up here as well," Monger pointed out, pointing up towards the large computer screens. The president and Mr Perkins, having finally regained most of their breath, looked up at them and, as if they were seeing it for the first time, went wide-eyed. The president walked past Mr Perkins down the steps to the floor and over to Monger, Mr Perkins right behind him.

"Can you believe it?" Monger asked him, though obvious of what the answer was going to be, but at the moment that really did not seem to matter.

"No," President Hathaway replied, shaking his head. "I've never seen anything that big before,"

"Neither have I," Mr Perkins said as he reached them.

"How did you two hear about it?" Monger asked them.

"I had just finished my speech on how we, us Humans and the aliens, could learn and respect one another and, after being told that other leaders around the world were sending speeches to this thing as well, one of the scientists came and showed us this satellite image," the president explained. "I almost passed out from the shock of seeing this thing as soon as I laid eyes on it,"

"Same here," Mr Perkins added. He shook his head a little as if unable to comprehend what was going on. "I'm not a believer in any God, but…if there is one…may he help us if we go to war,"

Monger and President Hathaway nodded in reply. Though they themselves were both atheist, if there was a god that was watching all of this, may he help them if these aliens were hostile. Just looking at the size of this enormous ship hovering above Earth could only make one imagine the very power they wielded. Who knows what else they had in store that Humanity did not know about!

"Alright," the president said after a moment and turned towards the computer screen on the table behind him. "Monsters, do you have anything planned for just in case we go to war against these guys?" he asked them.

They looked at each other uneasily for a moment. Upon seeing the looks on their faces, the president knew the answer instantly.

"You don't, do you," he said.

Dr Cockroach shook his head. _"I am afraid not, Mr President," _he replied.

Hathaway sighed and rubbed his head across his forehead. He was annoyed by this. They should always have something ready for when the Earth would be in danger. Then again, though, he could not blame them because everything that was ready for fighting threats to Earth was for fighting threats that _were from Earth_, not against threats that were from space. There was no way they could have expected this, but these aliens were here now and there was no way the monsters, or even the Earth's military for that matter, could prepare for war if these aliens turned out to be hostile.

President Hathaway looked up at Monger and Mr Perkins. "Right, we need to begin mobilizing," he said. "We could find ourselves at war soon," he rubbed his hand across the back of his hand, bristling with anxiety. "I can't believe this is really happening," he muttered.

"Sir!" one of the workers near the control panel exclaimed all of a sudden, shooting up from his seat, drawing the heads of everyone in the base. He pointed up at the computer screens with a shaking finger. "L-look!" he said.

Everyone in the room, and the monsters, looked up at the main computer screens and went wide-eyed when they saw what was happening.

The alien craft seemed to be…lighting up? Yes, it was lighting up. A kind of…neon light green colour…that seemed to…emanate from the craft itself as if it was some kind of light bulb. Taking the form of a sphere, it grew out a little from the craft, growing brighter. Those in the room watched with wide shocked filled eyes. What was it doing?

_"I've got a bad feeling about this?" _Link said from the computer.

Monger could not help but agree with him. Whatever it was this enormous alien mother ship was doing, it did not look good at all. A hint of fear began to fill him.

All of a sudden, the green sphere that surrounded the alien mother ship shot out from it and seemed to spread across the Earth's surface like a wave sweeping onto the shore of a coastline. It approached the satellite above the Earth, coming at it with terrifying speed like a freight train. Closer and closer it got. Those in the room watched with shock, some with fear, wondering what was going to happen.

In the underground desert base, the monsters watched the green sphere sweep across the surface of the Earth.

"What is going on?" Susan muttered to herself.

If the others had heard her, there was no way they could have answered it, though they were about to find out what it was this green sphere, or wall, was doing.

Suddenly, the main computer screens just shut off with a loud electronic bang/fizzing noise, along with tall the other computer screens in the room, including the one on the table. Hathaway yelped and jumped into Monger's arms, he [Monger] being equally scared, but calmed down after a moment or so. He had dealt with panic like this many times before so he was kind of used to it in a way.

"Okay, you can let go of me now, Mr President," he said to Hathaway, who let go of his neck and stepped back down on the ground and straightened his tie.

"Just…uh, making sure you weren't scared, general," he said in a confident way as if he was not scared.

Monger rolled his eyes, "Sure, Mr president," he mumbled.

"Oh no!" Mr Perkins' voice exclaimed, drawing the two's gazes. He was looking at the computer screen which did have the monsters on it, only that too had been knocked out along with the other computers.

**At the underground desert base**

"No! C'mon!"

Dr Cockroach pounded the control panel of the computer screen again as he tried to get the computer to turn on, but no matter what he did it would just no do as he wanted. He pounded it again, typing in another code, but, to his dismay, it still refused to turn on.

"Darn!" he hissed, finally giving up. "It's not working!"

"What was that?" Bob asked.

"What's it called…a…an E-M-P, ain't it, doc?" he asked and his scientific friend nodded.

"Yes," he answered. "And, but the looks of it, they've disabled all computer screens here and at the underground base in DC and…who knows where else," he sighed and looked hopefully up at the screen, wanting it to come back on so they could resume contact with Monger and find out if he was okay and what was going on there. "I don't know how long it could be until the EMP wears off,"

"I hope it hasn't done too much damage," Susan said in a worried voice.

Unfortunately, if they knew the extent of it, she would be corrected.

All over the world, electrical appliances had been disabled, some even broken or destroyed, by the EMP burst from the alien mother ship. In Times Square, New York, people along the pavements and in cars looked up in confusion as the large advertising screens on the sides of the buildings just froze all of a sudden. In London, mobile phones lost their signals, as they did in Tokyo and Cairo and Paris and…God knows how many other cities and towns and villages across the world. Cashpoints suddenly failed to work in banks or on the sides of shops, televisions and laptop and computer screens broke or froze or lost internet connection.

Everything, virtually everything electrical, around the globe was disabled by the EMP burst from the mother ship.

By now, Humanity, most generally the civilians, were beginning to think something was up and were asking themselves: How could all of their electrical appliances suddenly be disabled all at once?

If they knew what was hovering above their home planet, then they would have their answer, but alongside that would be a new question:

_Were the aliens going to do anything else?_


	9. What will happen now?

"Okay, now, are we getting something?"

In the underground base of the White House, the workers and the scientists were trying to re-establish contact with their satellites whilst Monger was trying get the computer screen he had been using for contact with the monster back online. So far, however, neither was working.

"O-okay! Uh, Michael. Try it now," one of the workers in a group of three near the satellite communications computer said.

One of the other workers typed in a code and full power returned to the computer. However, as soon as it did, the words, in red: **Connection with satellite lost **appeared across the blank computer screen. The first worker swore, as did the worker who had typed in the code. President Hathaway, who had been watching with a closed fist around his mouth in hope that they would get the connection re-established again, sighed and turned to Monger behind him.

"Any luck, general?" he asked.

Monger shook his head, not turning to look at the president. "No, Mr President," he replied lowly. He sighed and slammed his hand onto the table hard, making the computer screen shake a little from the impact. This was really starting to get to him! There was an enormous alien mother ship above the Earth that was probably doing…God knows what and they could not see it happening! They had to get the connections with the satellites re-established soon or t would be too late to act if these aliens were doing something that could threaten the planet.

Monger tried typing in a code to re-establish the connection with the satellite again, but, as it had before, just like with the attempts with the other computer screens in the room, it just did not work. Sighing again, though this time in a more growling manner, he slammed his fist onto the table.

"Damnit!" he growled. "At this rate, if anything happens, we'll be too late,"

"How long can it be until you get this thing re-established with the satellites?" Hathaway asked Mr Perkins, who was at one of the computers, trying to get a connection re-established. The scientist looked over at him.

"We don't know, Mr President," he replied. "It could be a few hours before we re-establish contact for all we know," he added.

Hathaway sighed and nodded, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck. With all of Earth's satellites disabled, they were virtually blind to anything that this alien mother ship might do. If anything bad was to happen now, they would be powerless to stop it.

**At the underground desert base**

"Oh, come on! I think I've almost got it,"

At the desert base, the monsters were trying to get the main computer working again so they could re-establish contact with Monger and the president. For now, they seemed to be getting there. Dr Cockroach was just trying to put in full power to the computer so it would start up again. Even though they had tried this a few times already, each time they did so the computer would stay on for longer. Hopefully this time when they restarted it, they would be able to get it to stay on.

"Any Luck, doc?" Link asked him, watching his half man/half insect friend inside the computer's main power core at the back.

"Almost," he replied, grunting a little as he tried to push a thick power cord into place.

"What d'you guys think will happen now?" Susan asked, holding the door to the back of the computer, where the power core was, open for Dr Cockroach.

"Hopefully, nothing bad, my dear," Dr Cockroach replied from inside the computer. "Wait!" he grunted, pushing in the power cord with all his might. "I've…almost…got it!" he gasped. "Link, could you help me please,"

Link nodded and climbed into the back of the computer and helped his friend in pushing the power cord in with all their strength. As soon as they did, a loud electrical whirring sound emitted from inside the device. The two climbed out and Susan shut the door to the back of it. The computer screen flickered to life, though it was slightly fuzzy as power was slowly restored to it.

"I think that's done it," Dr Cockroach said hopefully.

Indeed it did. Just a moment later, the screen went back to normal and showed them the underground base of the White House. Monger, who had been standing over it, gave a sigh of relief when he saw the monsters on his computer screen.

_"Thank God it wasn't just me," _he said in a relieved manner.

"What's happened there, general?" Susan asked.

_"All the computers in here have been disabled," _Monger explained._ "Also, communications are down. We don't know how long It'll be until we can get 'em back online again," _he sighed_. "We'll just have to hope nothing's happened whilst we lost all communication-"_

"_General! Mr President!" _another voice exclaimed from somewhere off screen in the underground base of the White House. The monsters saw everyone in the room with Monger turn to look at the source of the voice. Footsteps followed and then a tall middle aged man of about forty eight with brown hair and was dressed in a brown army general's suit with brown shoes and a tie, appeared on the edge of the screen. It was the head of the air force. His face was red and he was breathing heavily from the running. He placed a hand on his chest and leaned against one of the seats next to the oval shaped table. _"Mr President!" _he breathed. _"W-we've…j-just recei…received word from…the Allen…ob-observatory,"_

_"What did they say?"_ President Hathaway asked him worryingly. He did fear the answer, but he had to know. He was the president and right now millions of lives could be at stake.

_"Mr President, we've managed to get contact re-established with the satellites,"_ Mr Perkins called from over at the computer.

The computer above them lit up to life, revealing space and the large mother ship to them once again. The head of the air force looked back the president and Monger, meeting their gazes.

_"Look what they've found," _the head of the air force said to them, nodding towards the screen.

As President Hathaway and the head of the air force, along with about everyone in the room, looked towards the main computer screen that the workers and scientists had managed to get working, Monger looked back towards the computer screen with the monsters.

_"I got a bad feeling about this, monsters,"_ he said to them.

"So do we,"Dr Cockroach replied.

_"Oh my God!"_ they heard the president gasp. Monger stood up and looked over at the president. He went to ask what was wrong, but saw why, as did the monsters, who, along with pretty much everyone in the room, went wide-eyed.

What they were seeing, from the zoomed in image brought in by the satellite, which was focusing on the towers on the top of the alien mother ship, was many of the enormous diamond shaped ships detaching themselves from the towers. As I had explained earlier, these diamond shaped ships, despite being almost dots compared to the mother ship, were large themselves, though exactly how big was unknown.

From what those in the room were seeing, hundreds of them were departing from the towers of the mother ship. All of them headed in one direction: Earth. Some of the first that had left the towers were already getting close to the surface of the planet; some were even beginning to disappear into the atmosphere.

President Hathaway gulped; trying to keep his fear contained, but found himself shaking from doing so. He turned to the head of the air force.

"Address the nation," he said to him, the head of the air force replying with a shaky nod, not taking his eyes off the computer screen. The president looked back at the computer screen, watching the large ships disappear one-by-one into the atmosphere of Earth. "There's gonna be a lot of afraid people out there,"

"Y-y-yes," the head of the air force replied shakily. "I can safely say: I'm one of them,"

"Same here," Monger piped up, his voice also quivering. He sighed. "Mr President, I better head back towards the desert base. Prepare for a defence of the San Francisco area just in case,"

President Hathaway nodded, looking at the general. "Alright. Good luck, general," he replied.

Monger saluted the president and rushed out, Hathaway looking back up at the computer screen with worry filled eyes. One question was lingering in his mind now.

_What was to become of Humanity now? _


	10. The response we feared

Within minutes, they were all over the news stations, radio stations, Televisions, online Internet and news websites all over the world, even though many people around the world were seeing it for themselves.

In London, people had been continuing with their daily duties as they had been every day for years. Bus drivers leant out of their windows and shouted and swore at other drivers, huge crowds filled the pavements, cars blocked the streets, drivers beeping horns or shouting abuse at others or talking on their mobile phones, as the signals from the satellites were beginning to return, people sat in offices or in cafes, talking or eating their meals, completely unaware of anything different around them.

Then, a car screeched to a halt in the middle of the street. The cars behind beeped their horns loudly, the first car, directly behind the car that had stopped, unfortunately crashed into it. Thankfully, the drivers were unhurt. The driver that had crashed the car got out and swore at the other driver for stopping. However, the driver that had stopped his car did not reply. Instead, he just stared wide-eyed up at the sky as he got out of his car, a look of shock on his face. The other drivers, along with several people on the pavements who had been watching the dispute, looked up and went wide-eyed like the first driver. A woman gasped and dropped her handbag. More cars and buses screeched to a halt, their drivers and passengers gazing up at the sky with complete disbelief lingering in their eyes.

Coming down from the mostly cloudy sky was a large shape. It was huge, no…gigantic. It broke through the clouds, fully revealing itself to the metropolis below. It was a huge diamond shape with a complete dark grey/dark silver colouring to the thick looking armour around it. Sticking out of each point end of the craft were several spires. Descending down from the centre of the bottom of the craft were three large spires, making them look like a kind of opening to a silo between them, from which a light green neon light was emanating from. On the top of the craft was a large dome that covered the middle of the top of the craft. The entire size of the craft was, at the very least, _half_the size of London!

People all over the city were gazing up in shock at this enormous ship hovering over their city. In council house estates, office buildings, houses, supermarkets, factories, everywhere. Some had their phones or cameras out and were recording this huge craft as it descended down from the sky. Some people believed that it was trying to crash into the city because it looked as though it was not going to stop descending. Luckily, though, it did, about a mile above London.

_"This is BBC news with an extraordinary news bulletin! An enormous craft, obviously of extra-terrestrial origin, has descended from the skies and is now hovering over the city of London," _the newswoman said on televisions, radios, online news etc. It was obvious by the sound of her voice that she was completely breath-taken, afraid even, by this completely unexpected, and terrifying, event. _"This…this is unreal…amazing, but also terrifying!"_

All over the world, this was happening in every major city.

In Tokyo, a large ship descended from the blue sky. Cars, bikes, trucks and buses and even trams and trains screeched to a halt as people looked up at the sky, some with shock on their faces, others fear, some even crying. People in the Tokyo Tower ran to the windows, as was everyone in office buildings, factories, apartment buildings and such all over the great city, to stare at this alien shop as it descended from the sky.

In Los Angeles, virtually everything had stopped as another ship descended from the sky, coming to a halt over the city. All traffic had stopped, everyone on the pavements had stopped, even those on the beaches had stopped swimming or relaxing in the sun to stare up in shock, awe or fear at this enormous ship. Some people were running to the tops of nearby buildings and were filming the arrival of this alien ship.

In San Francisco, a tall man with brown hair, green eyes and was wearing a white top and jeans with black shoes, ran out of the Transcontinental Pyramid building entrance in the centre of the city onto the street with about a thousand other people. As he came onto the street, he saw cars stopping everywhere in the roads and people coming out of the buildings surrounding the pyramid building, all of them looking up at the sky. The man looked up at the sky with wide-eyes as the large craft descended from the sky, coming to a halt over the city.

"Hey Jacob," another man, a shorter man with black hair, a small beard and was dressed in a red top, brown jeans and trainers, said, walking over to him, his eyes also fixed on the sky. "Can you believe this?" he asked.

Jacob shook his head. "No," he replied. He thrust his hand into his pocket and pulled out his mobile phone. "I gotta call my wife and kid in Modesto and tell them what's going on," he said, even though part of him did think that they knew about this already.

**In the White House**

President Hathaway had immediately rushed up to his main office with his top advisors, generals and scientists shortly after Monger had left. At the moment, phones were going off everywhere and generals were coming in and reporting what was going on.

At the moment, the president was sitting behind his desk, listening to the news on the radio on the desk, whilst going over the reports the secretaries were giving him when they entered. The members of his top staff were around him, talking on phones or to each other whilst secretaries entered every few seconds with news of what was going on.

"Mr President, we've got reports that another of these is headed towards New York," his head of air force told him after hearing it from the phone in his hand.

"Two more have been confirmed heading towards the centre of the country, sir," the head of the army reported.

"Where to?" Hathaway asked, stopping a woman secretary who had just entered the room, a clipboard and a piece of paper in her hand.

"One is headed towards Dallas, the other we think is headed towards Chicago," the head of the army answered.

Hathaway nodded with a sigh and took the piece of paper from the secretary as she handed it to him. He read the report on it. _Confirmation of the raising of military awareness to DEFCON 2 in the Pentagon_. He sighed and, putting the paper on the desk, placed a hand worryingly over his mouth. He knew very well that this move by the aliens could decide the fate of Earth and Humanity within the next…half an hour, hour, maybe next two hours…he just did not know! It was frustrating in not knowing the intention of these beings and also that war could be coming.

_May God help us! _he thought. _It could be up to the monsters now if they're hostile_

"Mr President," Mr Perkins said from the doorway. He and everyone else in the room looked up at him. "We have a TV set here on the news,"

Hathaway sat up, needing to make sure that his fear did not overwhelm him, and nodded. "Bring it in," he ordered. Mr Perkins nodded and rolled in a television on a table with wheels, on it the American news programme _CNN_. He rolled the table over to the side of the room and stepped back, watching the news on it with everyone else.

"_We have not received anything from the White House or from the Chief of Staffs about the sudden arrival of these enormous alien ships, but our news correspondent has been told she would soon. Um…in…in oth-other news, we have been told that more alien ships have appeared over more cities across the world," _the newsman on the television said. The image changed from him in the news station to a view of different cities across the world, though they all had one thing in common now. It was the enormous ship hovering above them. _"The alien ships have arrived over Moscow, Rome, Paris, Cairo, Riyadh, Baghdad, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, St Petersburg, Brasilia, Sao Paulo, Tunis, Ottawa and Madrid," _he continued. _"We also have reports that more ships have been reported heading towards Mexico City, Havana, Pretoria, Mogadishu, Kabul, Islamabad, Warsaw, Berlin, Dresden, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Tripoli," _the newsman sighed. _"May we pray that these visitors have peaceful intentions than what had happened a year ago with the last visitors to Earth,"_

As the newsman ranted on, the head of the air force walked over to the president and leaned in close to him.

"Mr President, I've given the order to send a squadron of F-18's over New York to investigate the ship there," he whispered to him.

Hathaway nodded. "Right, let me know what happens," he replied, getting up. "I need to make an announcement to the nation that we will try and communicate with the visitors," he announced. "Hopefully, these guys will be more peaceful," he added.

Those in the room with him nodded, hoping as well that this would be a peaceful encounter with another extra-terrestrial civilization.

**At the desert base**

"What do you thinks gonna happen now?" Link asked.

"I hope nothing bad," Susan replied.

The monsters stared at the many hundreds of news-screens from all over the world on the computer screen, all of them pointing at the very same thing: the arrival of these visitors to Earth. Though some contained praise in the belief that these aliens had not threatened Earth and were likely to be friendly, most contained the supposed threat that could originate later on as these visitors may launch an attack soon. For the moment they just did not know.

"Have you heard anything from Monger?" Gerald, who had now joined the group, asked.

"No, nothing," Dr Cockroach answered.

Gerald 'hmmed' with concern. "I hope he's okay. We haven't heard from him since he left the White House,"

"Oooh, where's he going?" Bob asked eagerly.

"He's coming back here, Bob," Susan answered his question.

"Cool!" he replied ecstatically. "We should totally surprise him when he gets back. Me and Janet'll hide under the cushions on the sofa,"

The others rolled their eyes. "Yes… That does sound like a good idea, Bob," Dr Cockroach replied. "Why don't you go and get ready,"

Bob nodded with a smile and oozed over to the sofa, hopping down into it from the computer panel desk. Dr Cockroach turned back to Gerald.

"He'll be alright," he told him.

"Yeah, doc's right," Link added. "This _is _Monger we're talking about, remember. He's been through worse,"

Gerald gave a slight nod. He had heard a lot about Monger's reputation, especially last year with Gallaxhar's invasion so he did have a good chance at staying alive.

_But that had been different last time _Gerald reminded himself. _Who's to say that he will make it through this, if we do go to war that is?_

"Hey, look!" Susan suddenly pointed exclaimed, pointing at the screen, drawing the others to look at it. Bob oozed over and stopped next to her.

On the _CNN _news-screen on the computer screen, the news camera, on the top of a skyscraper in New York City and having previously been focused on the alien ship hovering over the city, showed four F-18 fighter jets speeding towards the alien ship.

"Oh no!" Gerald muttered under his breath, but loud enough for the others around him to hear. "They're going to send a few jets to look at the ship. Standard military procedure," he gulped. "Let's hope the aliens don't respond with hostilities,"

**Meanwhile, above New York**

_WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!_

The four strong squadron of F-18's flew over the great metropolis of New York towards another of the aliens' ships that had arrived over the city just a few moments earlier. On the ground, standstills of cars the lengths of entire streets filled the city, the inhabitants within them as well as those in buildings, on the pavements and on the islands and mainland around the city were pointing up at the craft.

_"Eagle 001, this is Eagle 002. Confirm weapons at the ready," _the pilot of the fighter jet with an eagle and the numbers 002 painted on It's side said into his radio. 

_"Copy, Eagle 002. Weapons are at the ready. Eagle's 003 and 004, confirm weapons at ready?"_

the pilot of the fighter jet eagle 001 replied.

_"Roger," _the pilots of the other two eagle fighter jets replied in unison.

As the craft flew towards the alien ship, uneasy-ness began to run through the minds of the pilots. Even though they had their weapons at the ready and were in pretty much the fastest aircraft ever invented so far in Human history, they feared that these aliens would have something faster and much more deadlier than what they were using if they turned hostile. That was what they feared as well. What if these aliens were hostile? If they were, then all four of these craft could easily be shot out of the sky into millions of pieces, along with New York and everyone in it.

_"Hold formation and stay alert," _the pilot of the eagle 001 F-18 ordered as the squadron of fighter jets flew past the craft, which had stopped dead over the centre of New York, keeping well away from it so they could react if it fired on them, though between the fighter jets and a city filled with about 18 million people below, these aliens would obviously go for the city.

As the craft flew on past the alien ship, going in a kind of circle around it, the pilots kept their eyes on it, their hands shaking slightly on their throttles, ready to dive the jets away from the ship if it turned on them. So far, however, the alien ship just hovered there above the city as if it was taking virtually no notice of the jets or even the city for that matter. Still, the fighter pilots kept their minds fixed on it, ready to make evasive manoeuvres.

_"No sign of any response," _the fighter jet pilot of eagle 003 said.

_"D'you think this could be like that film 'District 9'?" _the fighter jet pilot of eagle 004 asked. _"I mean, d'you think they might just hover over the city and wait there for like…three months like they did in the film?"_

_"They could do,"_ the fighter jet pilot of eagle 001 replied. _"But I don't think these guys'll be weird prawn-like thi-wait!"_

The pilot was suddenly cut off as he looked over towards the bottom of the alien ship. Even though his had his helmet visor covering his eyes, there was no doubt they were going wide-eyed behind it.

The reason: part of the bottom of the craft had opened up, revealing a light green neon light to the outside world. Before any of the pilots', or even anyone on the streets below, could comprehend what was going on, tens of tiny craft shot out of the light and flew straight towards the fighter jets.

The craft were about the same size of the fighter jets, but were much different in design. They had spherical main section with a green circular light on the front of it. Two L-shaped wings stuck out of the sides with the long ends pointing front outwards. On the back of the sphere was another light green circle, though it was slightly larger than that on the front, as it was an engine, and on the top and the bottom of the sphere were two small spires, each only about two feet long, that were pointing towards the back of the craft. All of the craft were a kind of dark grey/dark silver colour, just like that of the large diamond shaped ship they had just left.

The alien craft flew after the fighter jets, catching up to them with much faster speed.

_"Oh God!" _the pilot of fighter jet eagle 003 said. _"What do we do?"_

Before he could get an answer, one of the alien craft caught up with the fighter jets, flying on about forty feet behind it. All of a sudden, a light green ball quickly charged up and shot out from the front of it towards the nearest fighter jet, which was eagle 002.

BOOM! The ball struck the back of the jet, the fuselage and the armaments on the fighter igniting as the highly energized ball struck it. The craft was engulfed in a fireball that completely disintegrated the cog pit and the pilot within it and broke the craft in two, sending the remains on a deadly descend to the ground below.

"_Holy shit! Break formation! Break formation!" _the pilot of fighter jet eagle 001 almost screamed.

The three remaining fighter jets immediately separated from each other, shooting off into the air. However, the alien craft were superior in manoeuvrability, speed and in numbers and they quickly caught up with them. Two of the alien fighter chased after eagle 004. The pilot zigzagged his fighter desperately to try and evade the high energized balls the alien fighters were firing at him, but failed when one of them struck the back of the fighter jet, blowing in half and sending the remains on a high speed descend to the bay below.

Eagle fighter 001 had managed to get behind one of the alien ships and fired several bursts from his fighter's machine guns. However, the alien craft seemed to turn or shift out of the firing line before he could even fire. Anger began to fill the pilot like water filling up a tank, but he had another weapon on his fighter at his disposal.

"Say goodbye ET," he said and pushed down on the button to fire missiles.

WHOOSH! A pair of missiles shot out from the fighter jet towards the alien ship, which was flying straight on at high speeds as if trying to outrun them, but the missiles were quickly catching up to it. The pilot grinned. Yes, they were going to hit it! They were going to hi-

What the…? The alien craft was there and then all of a sudden it was not. Where the Hell did it go? The missiles flew on past where it had been and exploded.

Suddenly, the alien fighter shot up from below in the blink of an eye and flew at high speed towards the fighter jet. The pilot yelped and thrust the craft sideways to avoid a mid-air collision with it. As he flew away, the alien fighter craft chased after him and fired another ball of energy at the fighter jet. Like what had happened with the first two fighter jets, eagle 001 was struck and blew up into a million pieces. The last fighter jet, 003, flew off in a desperate bid to escape, but the aliens' superior speed outdid him and one of the six chasing him fired on his craft, striking it and blowing it up in mid-air.

In the space of just a few minutes, a squadron of four fighter jets had been destroyed.

It was now clear here above New York and all over the world. The aliens did not come in peace.


	11. Brought down

"Oh my God!" the cameraman on the top of the skyscraper shouted in panic as he filmed the remains of the fighter jets fall to the ground, some lamming into buildings, others into the bay or onto the streets.

Suddenly, as if someone had flicked a switch, screaming erupted from all over the city. The camera man rushed to the edge of the roof and looked down to see a scene of utter chaos on the streets below. Everyone was running from the alien ship. Cars reversed or sped forward in an attempt to get away, people climbed over parked cars or abandoned them or fled into any nearby hiding spot. Most, however, ran down the streets, hoping to get as far away from the alien ship as possible.

Then, a loud mechanical whirring sound filled the air like thunder. Many people running looked up at the alien ship to see the bottom of the sides of the ship open up to reveal hundreds of large circular holes. Then, large spheres began to drop out of these holes, falling towards the Earth like bombs, which they probably were. People ran faster, hoping to get away from where they going to land if they were bombs or some kind of mechanical device that would kill them if they went near it.

It was when the spheres were a few tens of metres off the ground that they opened up, growing two legs with feet and producing a large green eye on their front like that on the front of the alien fighter craft. They were large ground robot vehicles. With a ground shaking thud, the robots slammed to the ground all over the city, some ploughing through the sides of buildings, and stood at their full height of about twenty five feet. The full design was revealed to anyone that unfortunately happened to be near them. They had a large main sphere that was the head of the robot with two large circular pieces attached to the sides of the sphere which held the legs and the large oval shaped feet. On the front of the sphere was the large light green neon eye which had two rings of the same colour around the centre. The robots were, like the alien drones, coloured a dark grey/dark silver colour.

Now the aliens' hostile intent had become clear.

The robots looked up and, like lions chasing after deer, began to march down the street, the rings charging up a light green neon colour and then a light green neon laser shot out from the eye in the centre of the sphere's front. One robot that had landed in the middle of an intersection fired a laser a bus, blowing it in two. Another down the street fired at the entrance to the shop, smashing the front of it and killing a group of people hiding inside it. A few policemen whipped out their pistols and fired on the robots, only to attract their attention to which the robots fired at them. The lasers from two slammed into a group of policemen next to a police car, destroying it and completely disintegrating them.

In the skies above the city, the alien fighters began to swarm over the city, firing more balls of energy at the skyscrapers. One alien craft fired at a tall office building, blowing the top of it off completely, the rubble falling to the streets below, screams echoing from it. Another fired three times at the Empire State Building, blowing large holes in the front and sides of it, blowing off large pieces of it. Another two alien fighters flew over a densely packed area of New York, dropping large balls of energy from large open blast doors on the bottom of them, each one an explosive of death falling to the ground, causing maximum death and destruction wherever it landed.

And it was not just here in New York that the attacks were being carried out. it was all over the world.

In London, the aliens sent in hundreds of drones and robots that began to lay waste to the city below. Robots were tearing apart the downtown and the residential areas of the capitol of the UK, drones were firing on bridge, main road or building of any cultural, scientific, economic and, most importantly, defensive importance to the city, regardless if anyone was on or inside it. The Big Ben tower had already been hit and collapsed into the River Thames. More skyscrapers were burning, as were many apartment buildings. The London Eye Ferris wheel was struck in the middle, the ball of energy disintegrating it and causing it to break in two, the carriages falling into the water or to the ground below.

In Tokyo, the streets were filled with fleeing people, rubble, smoke and burning building and cars. A robot marched down the street, firing at the shops and houses in which people were using to hide in, destroying them all. An alien drone flew overhead and fired a laser at the Tokyo Tower, blowing off the top of it, which fell to the ground with a loud mechanical scream, landing on a small apartment building, crushing those inside or around it. Meanwhile, the alien ship above launched more drones and robots into the fray.

In Cairo, more alien drones flew over the city, dropping bombs over the outskirts and over the pyramids where many civilians had begun fleeing to, each bomb causing destruction on an unprecedented scale. One bomb tore through the top of the pyramid and exploded in the centre, blowing out large holes around the side of it. Another bomb over the city landed on the Grand Nile Tower Hotel, blowing a large hole in the top of it. On the ground, two robots fired on a police station, destroying it and causing it to collapse, burying anyone who was inside. They then proceeded to turn on the police cars around the building, destroying each one.

In San Francisco, several blasts from the robots tore open large holes in the sides of the buildings. Fires raged from the Transamerica Pyramid building, filling the sky with a black cloud that spewed over the city. More drones flew overhead dropping bombs on the main roads jam packed with people, creating large holes in the ground, some causing underground water and sewage pipes to burst and spray the crowd. Robots smashed through cars, firing at will on the surrounding buildings.

Hiding behind an overturned car, Jacob looked out and watched as a robot stomped past, coming to just within a few metres of him, the deadly robotic green eye turning from side to side, searching for a target. People screamed and ran for cover. He gulped and kept low. The robotic eye turned to further down the street and moved off down there, the sounds of the blasts filling the air.

Jacob breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God," he muttered.

All of this, the monsters watched on the computer screen, the death and destruction waged in every major city filled with them with a sense of hopelessness and shock, though mostly the first. An alien race was laying waste to the world and they could do nothing about it.

"My God!" Link said, staring wide-eyed at the screen.

"This is unbelievable!" Dr Cockroach muttered, his wide bug eyes staring with sadness and shock at the screen.

Susan placed a hand over her mouth, a small tear rolling down her face as she took in the destruction and the death and the pain and suffering inflicted on the cities and the people there, and the worst part…they could do nothing! Nothing at all to stop this!

Link suddenly gave a defiant glare as if he were staring the aliens themselves in the face. "Alright, d'you guys know what? I'm not gonna stand here all day and watch this happen!"

Encouraged by his words, the others felt a feeling of determination rise within them. A sense of strength and duty. Yes, he was right! Yes, they had been taken by surprise by this attack, but if there was one thing they were not going to do, it was sit here and do nothing. They _were _going to act.

"Link's right," Susan said, standing at her full height. "C'mon guys we have to do something,"

Dr Cockroach nodded and stood up from his seat. "Gerald, you best prepare to get out of here with everyone else," he said to him.

"Yes, I think I will," he replied. He placed a hand on the doctor's shoulder. "Good luck to you guys," he said.

Dr Cockroach nodded. "Thank you, Gerald," he replied.

**Meanwhile, over central West Virginia**

Monger's transport plane flew through the now hostile skies over the neighbouring state of which contained Washington DC. As soon as he had left the White House and his transport taken off into the sky, he had tried to keep in touch with what was going on around the world.

At the moment, he was on the phone in the cog pit of his transport plane, listening to what the president was telling him, of what was happening, with wide-eyes.

"My God!" he breathed in total shock, placing a hand on his head. He shook his head a little as the president continued to tell him what was going on around the world. "I…I can't believe it, Mr President," he said. A pause for a moment. "Right, Mr President. Good luck, sir," he said and put the phone down. He stood where he was for a moment as if he had been turned into a statue before he breathed a heavy, frustrated sigh and pounded a fist on the control panel, knocking the phone off the receiver. "Damn!" he growled.

"How bad is it, general?" the pilot, a young man of about twenty three with blonde hair, blue eyes and was wearing a white top and black trousers, asked.

"Very," Monger replied. "As far as we know, these aliens are attacking virtually every major city across the globe," he paused and took a deep breath. "I can't believe this is happening," he said.

The pilot shook his head in disbelief over what the general was telling him. "We can only hope our willingness to fight and the monsters will have something up their sleeves this time," he said.

Monger nodded in agreement. "Same he-"

BANG! The plane shook violently all of a sudden and the cog pit turned a dark red colour and was filled with a loud blaring sound as an alarm went off inside it.

"What the…?" Monger shouted in alarm, jumping to his feet.

"Sir, we've taken damage to our engines!" the pilot told him. Another loud bang shook the ship again. "We're losing power!" the pilot exclaimed hysterically.

"What the Hell is doing th-" Monger was saying, but was cut off when he saw two alien drones shoot past the windscreen of the craft. Monger and the pilot stared at them with wide-eyes.

Then, the two drones suddenly turned around, in a way in which the front of both craft seemed to swap sides without the drones needing to fly sideways in order to turn around, and flew back towards the transport. Monger went wide-eyed. The pilot swore.

"GET DOWN!" Monger yelled, grabbing the pilot and pulling him out of his seat to the floor of the cog pit as the drones fired.

BOOM! The cog pit windows smashed as the front of the plane was hit. A bellow of smoke trailed out from behind the craft, which was also coming from both of the wings, both of which were on fire. The transport struggled to stay airborne.

Then, the transport tipped sideways and fell down towards the Earth, crashing into the ground and exploding into a fireball, incinerating everything and anyone inside it.

**Meanwhile, over southern Nevada, several miles from California**

In the mostly clear sky above Nevada and California, Insectosaurus flew in the direction of Modesto and San Francisco. His four friends were on his back. Link was resting on his head, keeping a look out over what was ahead of them like a sailor gazing out over the sea as his ship sailed over it. Bob, who held his dessert Janet in his hand, was 'showing' her a view of the landscape below near Insecto's wing. Sitting in the middle of his back between his two large beating wings was Susan and Dr Cockroach, Susan having shrunk down to her normal Human size with the ring on her finger. Dr Cockroach was looking over a GPS device he had made out of an old broken computer screen with a paperclip and a used solar absorbent battery. On the screen, they were just approaching the eastern side of California.

"How far are we from San Francisco, doc?" Link shouted to him.

"Not far, Link," he replied. "About another ten to fifteen minutes and we should be there,"

"Good," Link clicked his hands and punched one fist into the pal of his other hand. "I can't wait to kick some alien butt,"

"D'you think we'll be able to stop them?" Susan asked him and he looked up at her with uncertainty lingering in his eyes.

"I don't know, my dear," he told her, heaving a heavy sigh. "This isn't one ship we're dealing with now. We're dealing with an entire fleet that's spread out all over the world," he sighed again. "Who knows what'll happen this time,"

"Hey guys, can you believe the view!" Bob shouted over to them. "Janet loves it,"

Dr Cockroach and Susan rolled their eyes. "I'm glad, Bob," Susan replied. "Just don't drop her,"

"I won't, she's safe with me," he replied. He resumed showing her the landscape below. "See that field down there, Janet?" he asked the dessert eagerly. "And that hill and that…what is that?"

He was pointing at something that seemed to be moving with them, but it was too far below for him to see what it was, but it was getting bigger. Was it growing? Or was it getting nearer to them?

"Hey guys," Bob called. "Come and have a look at this,"

The others came over and Bob pointed down at the object. "What is that?" he asked.

Dr Cockroach squinted his eyes to try and get a better look at the object. It was definitely getting bigger, but he still could not get a proper look at it. What was it?

"What on Earth is that?" he asked.

They finally got their answer when the object shot up past them, startling them and throwing them backwards. They watched the object shoot up and then turn and fly down towards them. With one look at it, they knew immediately what it was.

"INSECTO, LOOK OUT!" Link yelled.

Their flying friend looked up and saw the danger and took a sharp bank left, narrowly missing a blast from the alien drone, which began to give chase. The four held on tight as Insectosaurus began banking left and right and rising and diving in desperation to avoid blast fire from the alien drone.

"We gotta take this thing down!" Susan said.

"How?" Link asked.

Suddenly, as if on cue to answer his question, Insectosaurus suddenly stopped in mid-air, almost throwing his friends off him. The alien drone shot upwards to avoid a mid-air collision and flew on ahead, Insectosaurus giving chase, his wings beating hard and fast as he tried to catch up to the alien craft. When he did get near it, he bit down hard, trying to knock it out of the sky with his teeth, the drone managing to avoid every attempt by him.

"Yeah, you go, Insecto!" Link cheered his friend on.

Insecto did so and had almost caught the drone at one point. If he kept this up, he would have it!

Then, the drone, seemingly having had enough of this, dived upwards and made a kind of sonic boom burst into the sky, quickly disappearing into the clouds. Insectosaurus gave an approvable roar and continued on in the direction of the coast.

"Nice one, Insecto," Link commented, patting his friend's head.

"Yeah, you beat him," Bob said.

"Excellent work," Dr Cockroach told him.

"Yeah, nice work, Insecto," Susan said.

Insecto gave a light roar in reply and continued on. Link breathed a satisfied sigh and stood up straight, placing his hands on his hips.

"Well, we have that alien drone a welcome to Earth, monster style," he said. "We'll have to do the same with the others,"

"Yes, we must," Dr Cockroach replied. "Now, let's see how far we are from the…ci-" his eyes left his GPS and looked up at the sky behind them and went wide. "LOOK OUT!" he screamed in terror.

Suddenly, four blasts shot towards Insectosaurus, who saw them coming and dodged them and shot on ahead as fast as his wings would allow him to go. The four on his back looked behind them to see now _four _drones chasing them. This was not good, not good at all.

Suddenly, the drones fired again, though this time, they seemed to fire at a designated area of the sky in front of them. Each ball of deadly energy from each of the drones formed together and became one giant ball of light green neon energy, which then, all of a sudden, shot forward towards the giant flying butterfly.

"Insecto, look out!" Susan warned.

Too late.

WHAM! The ball of energy struck the back of Insectosaurus. The giant butterfly let out a loud ear splitting shriek of pain and fell towards the Earth. The other four panicked and threw themselves against the back of his head, curling themselves into balls as they prepared for the crash into the ground, praying they would all be okay.

Moments later, Insectosaurus slammed into the Earth with such force that he shook it like an earthquake. Trees were knocked over and broken in two like splinters; a mound of earth was formed in front of him whilst a large trench had been formed behind him.

Finally, after a few moments, the giant bug came to a halt, but neither he nor his friends got up. By the looks of it, they had all had perished in the crash.


	12. We're on our own now

**Twelve hours later**

"_President Reagan had once said to the UN: __**"I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world." **__Now, we must put his words into action! Today, we are at war with an alien species hell-bent on our destruction. __The nations of the world must put aside It's differences and unite into a single global army!" _

The words of President Hathaway ringed in the ears of those around the world, as did the speeches for moral and unity of other leaders. All nations were to unite their combined armies into a single global force to now fight this alien invasion for the survival of the Human race and Earth. It seemed like it was an idea that would succeed.

However, in reality, it was completely different. Even though Earth had now united in the face of these alien invaders, the leaders of the world were quickly realising that their multi-billion assets, their numbers of troops and their masses of soldiers, tanks, ships and aircraft were not working against the aliens.

What was worse, the aliens were now beginning to focus their attacks. Their swarming attacks had two tactics, one for psychological effect, and the other for strategic reasons.

The first, the psychological effect tactic, was known as shock and awe, the concept in which the will of a populace to fight was changed, and the best way to do this was to have global domination and be able to strike anywhere at any time, something the aliens had done today to an extreme.

The other tactic was strategic because in or around cities, there were the factories in which organised defences were placed and the construction of the military war machines would occur. By striking the cities, especially the major cities around the world, they had virtually neutralized any attempt for the Humans to strike back hard at the aliens.

In New York, a group of six robots of the alien invaders marched down the now rubble filled roads, most of which were strewn with burning cars, craters and the occasional body of a Human. Some robots had also been destroyed, but they were few compared to the losses the Humans had suffered here and in the sky, the alien air force ruled with…almost no opposition.

The robots stopped outside the remains of a police station, which was covered with large holes, revealing the offices and the garage, which was filled with destroyed cars, that was inside, overlooked the harbour. One of the robots looked out across the murky water, watching the few remaining ships that had managed to escape sailing across to the mainland from Manhattan Island. In the wooden docks and jetties were the remains of ships that had been struck in the fighting and were laying there, lifeless burning wrecks, billowing out smoke that was akin to that of the blackness being spewed out from the hundreds of burning skyscrapers. This was a true warzone.

However, out of all this, several things had survived and they the bridges. Though they had been damaged, they still stood and were packed with refugees. For some reason, the aliens had not destroyed them, almost as if they were allowing the Humans to escape. Whether this was what they wanted or not was unknown, though if the aliens themselves were down here, there was no doubt there would be those among them who would want to target the bridges right now and kill all of the Humans on them.

In other places around the world, there were also signs of defeat for Humanity as the aliens began to focus their attacks.

In Afghanistan, the remains of Camp Bastion burned, burning vehicles and craters dotting the landscape along with burning buildings from the nearby villages, all having been struck with utmost ferocity from a force of alien drones from one of the warships that had stopped over the country. Most of the people in the village and in the base had fled, scattering into the mountains and surrounding deserts, hoping they would survive.

In Russia, America, China, Korea (both North and South) and the UK, military ports had been virtually wiped off the face of the Earth by en masse attacks. Along with the ports were the centres for nuclear devices to be put together or stored. The fleets of the world had also been struck hard. In the Pacific, near the islands of Hawaii, the remains of four US warships, the carrier _USS_ _Abraham Lincoln_, the destroyers _USS Lassen _and _USS Kidd _and the cruiser _USS Port Royal _slowly began to sink into the waters of the largest ocean on Earth, the remnants of the crew sitting in life rafts, life boats or clinging onto debris from the ships. Many of their comrades were gone and they could do nothing but watch as the ships they had once worked, served and virtually lived on sank beneath the waves, now nothing but burning wrecks.

In countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait, major centres of oil for the globe, all of the oil centres had been attacked and had quickly gone up in flames, along with anyone who happened to be here when the aliens attacked. Power had been cut to the cities, whether oil, coal or nuclear, few power grids were left around the world, further depleting any hope of the Human militaries to fight back against the invaders.

In Washington DC, the Pentagon, once of the beating heart of the US military and the place which was to direct any offensive action in the event of war with the USA involved, was now a shell of It's former self. Covered in blast holes caused by robot lasers and blasts from the drones that had strafed and bombed the city, it had stopped beating and was now burning like most structures in the city were, spewing black clouds of smoke into the air. Nearby, the remains of the Capitol Building burned as well and the White House's side had collapsed after taking a direct hit from a bomb.

And in the deserts of Nevada, the remains of the surface buildings of the desert base were now nothing but ruins. Having been attacked by overwhelming numbers of drones, everyone above ground was killed and parts of the underground areas of the base had collapsed, burying many and sealing their fates, though at least they were spared a long struggle with the aliens.

Twelve hours after contact with the aliens had been made, all of the worst possible outcomes for Humanity had come true.

Military units had been obliterated. Cities were now in ruins. Infrastructure eliminated. And the worst of all of the outcomes…

Humanity was defeated.

**In the hills of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area**

The evening had descended over the West Coast of America. The sun was setting into the Pacific Ocean, turning the blue sky a beautiful array of colours comprising of gold, red, orange and purple. It was so peaceful and it would have been…if only this war was not raging on Earth. On the small peninsula of land north of San Francisco, leading off from the Golden Gate bridge, a large figure lay. It was Insectosaurus, who had been shot down by an alien drone earlier on. Around him, his friends lay on the ground, not moving or breathing.

"Ooooooohhhh!"

Dr Cockroach raised his head from the ground, rubbing the side of it with his hand to try and stem the pain from a bruise. As he stood up, almost losing his balance, he looked around him to see nothing but trees laying broken in two like toothpicks on the ground, a large trench driving deep into the Earth and stretching back for as far as his eyes could see.

"Oh my," he said, aghast at what his eyes were revealing to him.

"Owwwww!"

He turned to see Link raise his head from underneath Insectosaurus' wing. He heard Susan groan and she crawled out from underneath their large butterfly friend from a tiny hole that had saved her from being crushed by her friend's large size. Bob oozed out from the other side of Insectosaurus, though, unlike his friends, he had a smile on his face.

"Hey guys!" he greeted cheerfully. "Can we do that again? That was fun!"

Link sighed. "Another time, Bob," he told him, clicking his back, which made him wince in pain. "Man, I'm getting' too old for this," he muttered.

A loud roar-like groan came from the large figure of Insectosaurus and he shifted onto his front, his legs slowly raising him up from the ground. His eyes opened groggily and, using one of his front legs, rubbed his head in pain.

"Insecto!" Link said, climbing up his friend and onto his head, sliding down his nose to the bottom. "You alright, buddy?" he asked.

Insecto gave a light roar and nodded. He was okay. Link smiled. "Good,"

"Are you alright, my dear?" Dr Cockroach asked Susan, rushing up to her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, rubbing her head, groaning from the throbbing pain that felt like she had been stabbed there. It hurt…a lot.

Link jumped down from Insecto's nose to the ground and Bob oozed over to them. "So…what do we do now?" Link asked.

Dr Cockroach replied by walking past the others over to the ground. His eyes had rested on the end of his GPS, which was lodged into the ground under a small branch. He knelt down and pulled it out of the dirt, only to see that the screen was smashed, the battery hung out from the device and the paper clip had been broken in two. He sighed in annoyance.

"Well, looking around it useless now," he said, tossing his GPS to the ground. They were lost now. What were they to do? They were lost, had no equipment to help them and they were stuck in a hostile area in which alien craft were flying all over. If an alien drone, or drones, saw them here, they were as good as dead.

"What do you think we should so?" Susan asked.

"Find a way out of here," Dr Cockroach answered. "Hopefully, we shall find a way to Monger…if he's survived th-"

Suddenly, the sounds of rustling in the bushes nearby made the monsters look over towards them. A moment later, a young soldier of about twenty appeared out of them.

"Hey, It's you monsters," he greeted in a relieved manner. "I saw you guys go down. Thank God you're okay,"

"We're glad we've run into a friendly face," Susan replied. "Where abouts are we?" she asked him.

"In the Recreation Area, just north of San Francisco," he replied, but paused after he stopped speaking and a bit of a sad look etched across his face. "Or…what's left of it," he added.

The other monsters looked at each other with shocked or sad looks. They were too late by the sounds of what they were hearing from the soldier, and there was no telling what their late reaction to this crisis had cost in the blood and lives of many innocent civilians.

_KZK… "This is Gen-KZK… Monger," _came an all-to familiar voice to the monsters out of the soldiers' radio. _"Is anybody there, over?"_

"It's Monger!" Bob exclaimed. "Is he stuck in that thing?"

"No, Bob," Dr Cockroach replied. "Quick, pass me your radio," he said to the soldier, who nodded and took it off his belt and tossed it to the doc, who caught it and held it up to his lips.

"Monger, this is the doctor, over," he said into the radio.

_"Oh, doc. Thank God I've reached you. Are you and the others okay?" _Monger replied.

"Yes, we're fine," the doctor told him. "We were shot down whilst flying on Insecto on our way to San Francisco, but we managed to escape unscathed,"

_"Good. Wish I could say the same for me. Got shot down on my way back to you guys over West Virginia. I'm with a convoy now and we're headed to a hidden base in the west of the state,"_

As Monger and the doctor spoke, Susan walked over to the soldier.

"Excuse me, sir?" she asked.

"What is it, miss?" he asked.

"Do you know if there was anyone by the name of Murphy in the city?" she asked. Her parents had gone to San Francisco earlier today and she hoped there was a chance they had escaped.

The soldiers shook his head. "Sorry, miss," he replied. "I don't know, and at the moment, I or even you guys can't go back because It's too dangerous," he told her.

Susan looked down at the ground with a heavy, defeated sigh. "Right," she mumbled sadly.

The soldier sighed at seeing her like this. He wished he could help her, but the present situation in San Francisco at the moment had stopped him from doing so and there was no telling how long it would be until it was over and they could go back into the city, or what would be left of it.

"So, Monger, what are we to do?" Dr Cockroach asked the general.

A sigh came from the radio, but it was not the type of sigh that was stuck for planning…it sounded like a defeated one. Dr Cockroach's eyes went wide when he heard the sigh. Was…was Monger…accepting defeat?

"What's wrong, Monger?" Dr Cockroach asked him worryingly, drawing the gazes of everyone else.

Another sigh came out of the radio. _"I don't know what we're gonna do, doc," _Monger replied. _"I don't know what we can do,"_

"B…but…there has to be a way, Monger! There has to be!"

_"This time there isn't, doc," _another sigh. _"Look, I can't help you guys and I don't think help will come to you now. I'm sorry,"_

Doctor Cockroach fell silent. The others looked at each other worryingly. By the sounds of the conversation between the two, it was not good, but the real question was: what were they to do now with Monger gone and them stranded with aliens all around them? What was the plan now?

_"Doc," _Monger said. _"It's up to you guys to look out for one another now,"_

Dr Cockroach gasped, shaking his head in disbelief. "But, Monger! We need you to help us!"

_"I can't help you!" _Monger replied, shouting now, so loud that the others heard him. _"You're all on your own now, doc," _another sigh. _"Good luck out there,"_

Dr Cockroach nodded. "You too, Monger," he replied sadly, and with that the radio connection was gone and static was all that came out from it.

Dr Cockroach held back his tears and turned to the others. "We're on our own now," he said to them.

The others exchanged worried looks. Susan placed a hand over her mouth and looked down at the ground again, trying not to cry. Link and Insecto looked at each other sadly. Bob looked at the dessert in his hand, which wobbled as he moved it.

"I know Janet," he said to it in a sad voice.

Dr Cockroach felt the same way. Defeat was running through him like water flowing against a rock. He could not believe that now…now they were going to have to fend for themselves against an alien race that was hell-bent on destroying Humanity, and this time Monger, their leader who they looked up to, was not going to be there with them. It was hard to think about, let alone believe it was actually happening.

After a moment's silence, the soldier cleared his throat. "Well, we have a convoy nearby," he said to them. "We best get outta here before these aliens see us,"

Nodding slightly, Susan, Bob, Link and Dr Cockroach followed him into the trees. Insectosaurus cut a path through the trees alongside them, trying to keep himself low so as not to attract attention from any alien drones that might be flying overhead.

The once willing and victorious heroes of the Earth left the area, defeat hanging over them like a cloud as the city of San Francisco burned just a few miles away under the alien assault.


	13. Nothing will stop them now

**Meanwhile in the White House underground base**

President Hathaway sat at the end of the oval shaped desk, his head resting on his hands which were held up by his elbows resting on the table. With a sad sigh, he lifted up his head and placed a hand over his mouth, his face riddled with sadness and guilt. For the past few hours he had heard nothing but death and destruction across the country and the world. Everywhere, the aliens were attacking. New York was destroyed, San Francisco was ablaze, Miami and New Orleans had been virtually blown off the face of the Earth and parts of the interior of the US, such as Kansas City and Salt Lake City were under attack. Chicago had also been attacked and reports were that there were many dead there, as it was from cities all over the country.

On the table around him, the few remaining leaders, consisting of the Head of the air force, army and Mr Perkins, who were also quiet. Mr Perkins was watching the news screen on one of the main computers, watching part of New York go up in flames. He sighed and rubbed a hand down his face, unable to believe that all this was really happening, but the sad thing facing was that this _was _happening. All of it was happening and now Humanity was virtually defeated. They had heard about the defeat of Human forces all over the planet and now with the armies of Earth pushed aside or driven off, there was virtually nothing to stop the aliens from continuing this assault in the cities. There was no doubt how many civilians had been killed, but it was obvious that number of dead would continue to rise. For how long, though, nobody knew.

Just then, the door to the room opened. Everyone looked up to see one of the presidents' advisors, a medium height man with a bald head and was slightly overweight, walk into the room, a sad look on his face. He walked down the steps to the floor and over to the table.

"How bad is it?" the president asked him.

"Very," he replied. "We've just received word that the main army units on the west coast have been destroyed or driven off. Monger's gone down as well and so have the monsters,"

Everyone in the room, including those who had gone back to watching the news on the computer screen, looked at the advisor, lost for words. What! The monsters and Monger were gone? No! No, this was not true! This could not be true, there had to be a mistake.

"My God, tell me you're joking," the president said in a pleading voice. Sadly, the advisor shook his head.

"No, Mr President," he replied. "We've lost contact with the monsters and Monger. We don't know where either of them are. At the moment, we don't know where anyone is. Communications are screwed up and most of the army bases have been attacked and destroyed,"

Hathaway growled and slammed his fist onto the table, trying to pound out his anger, but he succumbed to it and sighed, falling onto the table in defeat. It was over. With no army, no communications and the most powerful team in the US army gone, there was no hope for the country or the world to survive. Now, it looked like Earth would have to begin surrender terms to these aliens. At least then they could hope to survive.

"So what are we to do now?" Mr Perkins asked.

"We have only one option now, Mr President," the advisor said to Hathaway, who looked up at him with wide eyes.

"You mean…?" he asked, quickly trailing off.

The advisor nodded. "Yes, sir,"

"W-whilst the cities are full?" he asked, his voice stuttering a little in shock over this decision.

President Hathaway looked over his shoulder at the two large red buttons on the wall. Above the one on the left was the word **Nukes **and above the other were the words **coffee machine**. Not a very good design point by the president, and usually he would end up having a coffee or something to cool him down, but right now he was too overcome with shock to want a coffee. His eyes were resting on the red button that was the launching code for the nuclear weapons arsenal of the US. His throat went dry and he looked back at the advisor.

"Are you sure this is the right thing?" he asked uncertainly.

"Mr President, It's our only option we have left now," he replied calmly, but desperately. "If we don't use it, then we can kiss Earth and possibly the entire Human race goodbye,"

Hathaway sighed and looked back over at the red button. This was, no doubt, a really hard decision, the hardest he had had to do since he had taken office. Was it the right thing though? Who would use one of the most destructive weapons Humanity has ever created on the aliens? Even if it worked, there was no doubt that many innocent civilians would be caught within the blast radius. How many? Thousands? No, millions. What was he to do?

After a moment, Hathaway sighed and, hating himself beyond belief, stood up and walked over to the button, the others watching him go. When he reached it, he paused in front of it, staring at it like it was a symbol of death, which it was in a way. Sweat began to run down his forehead like rain dripping off a pipe. His throat was beginning to go dry to the point that he feared it would shrivel up like a prune. He took a deep breath and pressed it.

A loud clunk filled the room. A small part of the wall below the button had opened and a small briefcase had dropped out from inside the wall to the floor. The president picked it up and carried it back over the table. The advisor, the heads of the air force and army and Mr Perkins gathered around, as did a few workers. The president opened the briefcase to reveal a small computer screen inside it on the top half with a tiny keyboard in the bottom half. A small booklet rested on the top of the keyboard with the words: **Nuclear launch codes **written across the top of it. Next to the keyboard was a small old fashioned crank telephone. The president picked up the booklet and opened it up, placing it on the table to reveal a page of launch codes with the type of nuclear weapon next to it and then next to that was It's location. This was something very high risk. Only Hathaway could use this and make the decision to use it. It was something he did not want to do right now, but at this present moment, it might be the only thing that could save Earth and Humanity from total destruction.

"Um…what is that, Mr President?" Mr Perkins asked.

"Access codes to nuclear warheads," Hathaway replied tonelessly as if his body was angry with his mind over his decision. "This could be our only hope now,"

"I pray we have to use this once," the head of the air force muttered.

Hathaway placed his finger on one of the nuclear warheads, which was located within a submarine, which had, hopefully, survived so far. He picked up the telephone and, holding it in place with his arm, cranked the phone. He stopped after a few moments and a second later, a voice was received on the other end.

_"Captain of the USS Anchorage, who is this?" _the voice asked.

"This is President Hathaway," the president replied. "I have a launch code for a TRIDENT 2 warhead,"

_"Yes, sir, Mr President," _the captain replied. _"Go ahead, sir,"_

The president read out the code to the captain. The others around him looked at each other nervously and in disbelief. This was a hard decision. Even the president was trying to keep a cool face but they could see it slowly contorting into a look of guilt. When he finished reading the code, the president gave a nod and threw the booklet down onto the table and slammed the phone down on the receiver, heaving a heavy sigh, gritting his teeth in trying not to break down.

_I've just made a decision to kill millions _his mind kept repeating over and over in his mind.

This was what it was like to use nuclear weapons. Before, he would have been eager to use them. He would have been eager to use them now, like he had been a year ago when to use a nuclear weapon against the giant robot sent by Gallaxhar to find the source of the quantonium on Earth, but back then, there had been no civilians near where it would land. Now, however, this was on an alien ship over a city that was bound to be full of civilians either wounded, trapped or trying to flee. He felt horrible.

But it was for the good of Earth though, or at least that was what he and everyone else hoped.

"God help me," Hathaway muttered under his breath. He looked up at the news on the computer screen as if witnessing the weapon he had ordered to be used going off already. "God help us all," he muttered.

**Somewhere in the Atlantic**

The calm waters of the Atlantic continued to sway and bobble normally as if nothing was wrong. Despite the fact that war was waging across the planet, it just seemed that the Atlantic had managed to stay out of it, that it would not affect it in any way. It was peaceful scenery, calm and unaffected by what was happening everywhere else.

Then, as if putting an end to this, a huge wall of water was forced up into the air with a great splash. A large cylindrical shape shot up from the depths of the ocean and rested on the surface of the water. A large tower was placed on the top of the object about half-way down it. It was the _USS Anchorage_, the submarine the president had called to fire a nuclear weapon.

And that's just what it did. All of a sudden, a large silver coloured cylindrical object with a curved top shot out of the front end of the submarine into the air, a jet of fire forcing it up into the atmosphere. Then, as quickly as it came, the submarine descended back below the waves like a predator that had done It's damage and wanted to make a quick getaway before it was spotted.

High in the sky above the water, the missile soared higher and higher, quickly passing into the atmosphere. As it climbed, the colour of the sky around it began to change from a light blue colour to a more dark blue and then it started to turn black.

Eventually, the missile broke through the atmosphere and soared into space, the scenery around it quickly changing into an ever-stretching blackness filled with thousands upon thousands of stars. It was in space now.

The missile began to tilt sideways a little towards the left. By looking down on the planet, it was headed for somewhere in the US. It was as if space itself wanted to get rid of the missile. A weapon of war had crossed into a peaceful environment and it was, therefore, not welcome here. The missile had now made a full U turn and was heading back towards Earth.

Then, the front of it broke open, the two remnants falling off into space, leaving the missile to fly on without them. At the front now were eight sharp cone shaped silver objects with the points pointed down towards the planet. They were the warheads.

Then, the missile broke apart and the eight warheads detached themselves from it and each other, some overtaking the others, all of them flying on towards Earth, towards their target.

The fate of the planet was now on the hopes of a weapon that many had feared would destroy it.

**White House underground base**

The leaders and the workers waited tensely in the underground bunker, their eyes not leaving the large computer screen that held the news. On it now was a long range view of the alien ship hovering over Chicago, which was some miles away, but the smoking ruins of the great skyscrapers still hung in the air. The president rubbed his hand down his face as hard as he could as if trying to punish himself for making this decision. This was a horrible thing, something which he k new he would regret, but…but maybe it would be worth it in losing a city and many thousands of people if it was to destroy an alien ship. The hope of him and everyone else in the room was that if this alien ship was destroyed, the others would retreat. It would show them the destructive power and how far in the resolve Humanity would go to kill these invaders, or at least drive them away.

"Look, there it goes! Mr Perkins exclaimed all of a sudden, pointing at the screen.

From the top of the screen, eight tiny objects appeared out of the sky and began to shoot towards the alien ship. The camera of the news crew zoomed in on the objects. That was them. That was the warheads.

Closer and closer they zoomed towards the alien craft, quickly nearing it in a matter of seconds. Those in the room held their breath, mentally praying that this act, as horrible as it was, would bring good to Earth and Humanity. Hathaway, however, looked away from the screen shutting his eyes and biting his lip, waiting for the coming explosion he would hear off the screen that was to destroy a city and, maybe, the alien ship, but also thousands of innocents.

Suddenly, as if a sun was rising, a bright light filled the room as the warheads collided the top of the alien ship. The explosions were so powerful that the ground the camera was placed on shook violently, almost making it fall over. A huge ball of fire shot up from the craft and began to spread out across the city, engulfing everything like a fog, knocking over most of the remaining skyscrapers as if they were twigs. Pieces of rubble were thrown high into the air like toys. Tress were uprooted, cars and lorries overturned, buildings literally blown apart. High above all of this wave of destruction, a huge black mushroom cloud shot up into the air, rising above the city like some kind of demon rising from the Earth. Smoke and dust rose and covered the city, descending it into quietness as if all forms of life had been silenced, which they had in a way.

The president, who had looked up at the screen when the bomb had finally exploded, sighed and sucked in air hard, clenching his hands tightly into fists, completely overwhelmed with guilt. He could not believe he had just ordered this. He felt terrible, but a voice inside him said that although it was a terrible act, it was for the good of Earth.

"Has this worked?" the advisor said hopefully, getting up from his seat from the other side of the table.

Everyone in the room was now looking up at the screen, waiting for the dust cloud to clear and see if the ship was gone. The seconds ticked by, but they felt like hours. The hearts of those in the room began to beat madly against their chests. Some just wanted to shout out for the dust cloud to move so they could see the result of the nuclear detonation already.

Then, as if answering their demands, the dust cloud began to disperse, slowly revealing the shattered remains of the city that had once housed millions of people. The sky had turned a kind of pinkish/red/orangey colour, the result from the nuclear weapons detonating in the air. Some people were shooting out of their seats, staring wide-eyed at the screen, trying to see if they could spot the ship if it was still there.

Finally, the dust cloud had dispersed enough for them to see where the ship had been hovering. Their hearts leapt! It…it was gone! It was completely gone.

Relief filled those in the room. The advisor chuckled a little in disbelief and clapped his hands. The head of the army breathed a sigh of relief. The head of the army seemed to deflate and slumped back into his chair. Mr Perkins smiled and looked over at the president, who gave him a small smile in return but looked down at the floor. It was obvious the guilt was still affecting badly.

"Mr President," Mr Perkins said, walking over to him and resting a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. It was bad, but…you have to admit it was worth it,"

"Maybe," Hathaway replied lowly. "But I have to carry this moment around with me now. They'll see me as a bad leader in the future, just like anyone would do," he nodded his head at the screen and looked back down at the flo-wait!

Hathaway looked back up the screen. What was that he had just seen? When he was looking at it fully, he noticed it. Mr Perkins looked up at the screen as well and he too noticed it too.

"Congratulations," The head of the air force said happily, shaking the hand of the head of the army.

"At last, we can drive ET off of Earth," the head of the army replied.

They looked over at the president and Mr Perkins and looks of confusion and worry etched across their faces when they saw them staring up at the screen. They did the same, as did the advisor and the workers in the room, and all of them went wide-eyed or swore under their breaths.

What they were seeing was a kind of electrical blue haze in the sky. It was like a giant bolt of electricity was charging in the air. What was it?

Then, a shape began to form out of it. The faces of those in the room fell. Some swore, others gasped and clasped hands over their mouths, shaking their heads in disbelief, unable to comprehend this. The head of the air force whispered: "My God!" under his breath and Mr Perkins muttered: "This can't be true!"

Unfortunately it was. The alien ship emerged from the haze, which then faded away into the air. It must have been some kind of cloaking device. No damage was visible on the alien ship whatsoever. Realisation set into the minds of everyone in the room.

Earth's greatest weapon, the one in which Humanity had feared would one day destroy it but had now been used to save it, had had no effect at all.

"My God!" Hathaway whispered. "If nukes can't stop them, then nothing will now,"


	14. Chaos in Modesto

**(XX)**

**The next day**

**Date: July 27****th**

_BEEEEEEPPPP! BEEEEEEPPPP!_

_(Static)-"This is the emerg-(static)-broadcast system. This is not a test! Federal offi-(static)-advise all citizens to leave urban areas immediately! Invading forces are targeting cities! To repeat, the invaders are targeting cities! All citizens are advised to flee immediately!"_

It was the same message all over the world. Invaders are coming, everyone must leave! That is what everyone was doing, or was trying to do. But within hours, chaos was beginning to reign across every major population centre across the planet. Highways were jammed with cars, some having been abandoned by their owners as they just wanted to flee, not caring about those behind them. Trains had come to a halt by the loss of power and for the fear they would be attacked by alien forces. Planes had also stopped for the same reason, leaving thousands of people stranded from family or in difficult places when they wanted to getaway.

And this was just one of the major predicaments occurring around the world.

Within the cities themselves, mostly ones that had not yet been attacked by the invaders, rioting mobs were beginning to brew. In supermarkets, corner shops, even the normal family homes, mobs were looting, rioting and destroying. Loot, riot and destroy. That was what was being repeated everywhere. Windows would be smashed, cars overturned, food, water, medicine, hygienic items, all of it was taken off the shelves. Fuel stations were virtually empty of the little petrol they had left. It was just utter chaos.

And if anyone happened to be in the way of the rioters, they would be brutally beaten up. The sad thing was: this was not a first thing for Humanity. They were fighting over resources just as their nature had been intending them to do ever since they could walk hundreds of thousands of years ago. With an invasion by an extra-terrestrial race, this only just accelerated that nature to fight each other and made it more violent than ever. It also increased it on a much wider scale. Instead of the violence being limited to a city or a nation, it was all over the world.

And the big difference now, unlike it had been in the past, help would not come, ever. Before, the army or the police would arrive to help those caught in the middle and bring order and stability. However, none of that was coming now. With the armies of the world in disarray and the police in just about the same way, the people of Earth were left to fend for themselves and flee the cities.

**Modesto, California**

In the streets of Modesto, a smaller version of the chaos that was being reeked across the world in the cities was occurring here as well. The streets were packed with cars or fleeing people, some held down with their children and/or bags of luggage filled with the few supplies and possessions they could take with them. Shouting and panic had gripped everyone like a disease, and it was spreading rapidly like an epidemic, only this one would have no end or cure to it.

Inside the house down the street from where the Murphy's lived, Michelle's mother, Sally, ran down the steps into the landing in front of the front door, which was wide open, a suitcase in her hand. The noise outside rang in her ears, but she was determined to get her and her children out of here. Her daughter had her son, Alex, and was waiting for them in the car outside.

Sally grabbed a pair of shoes from under the coast hanging on the wall next to the door and put them on. As she did, horrible thoughts were running through her head. She had not heard from her husband for over twelve hours since the attacks began and she had tried contacting him on his mobile phone, but it had not worked. Even though she hated herself for thinking this, her mind was already going to the worst case scenario if he was not replying to her calls or messages: He was dead.

_NO! _she sternly shouted to herself. He was _not _dead! He _was_ still alive! She sighed and grabbed her car keys from the set of drawers and ran outside to the car, not bothering to close the door behind her as she doubted her house would be left out in the chaos reigning in the streets at this present moment in time.

In the car, her daughter Michelle held out her hands for her mother's suitcase, which she passed to her.

"Where should I put it, Mommy?" she asked.

"Just put it on the seat next to your brother," Sally told her daughter.

Michelle did so, reaching over her brother, who was in one of those small baby car seats, dressed in a small stripped top and a small pair of jeans. He had short brown hair and green eyes, looking around wonderingly at what was going on. He was too young to understand that he had been born in a time of war and that chaos was reigning on the streets just metres from them.

Sally started the car and slammed shut the door. She was in a desperate race to get out of Modesto as quickly as possible before they were caught by a group of mobsters, or worse, the invaders. Oh, she hoped her husband was okay. She needed him right now to settle her worries and also to keep them safe from what was going on.

"Mommy, is dad going to be okay?" Michelle asked her mother.

Sally paused for a moment as she reversed the car out of the driveway, though she looked into her daughter's worried filled eyes and tried to reassure her with an apprehensive smile.

"I..I'm sure he'll be okay, dear," she replied. "Don't worry, your father'll meet us again soon," she told her.

"When?"

"Um…s-soon, Michelle. He'll be outside Modesto soon, waiting for us. yes, he'll be there. Don't worry dear, he'll be okay,"

As Sally stopped the car and turned left and drove down the road, she began to mentally curse herself for lying like that to her daughter. Of course it was not true. She had not heard from her husband since yesterday when the attacks had begun and with all the chaos reigning around San Francisco and Modesto and…God knows where else, it was impossible for him to be outside Modesto waiting for them. Though, even though she had reassured her daughter that he would be there, Sally was feeling the same way as her daughter was.

_Please be there, Jacob! _She mentally begged. _Please be okay, Jacob!_

SMASH! Michelle and Sally looked out of the car windows on the left side to see a group of men run out of a house, their arms filled with electronic equipment, obviously meaning they had just robbed it and hoped to take whatever they could whilst they had the chance. Panic began to fill Sally. Now she just wanted to get out of here, fast!

"Michelle, sit down!" she said sternly, startling her daughter.

"Mommy, why is everyone running around breaking things?" Michelle asked.

"I can't answer you, Michelle," her mother replied.

**(XX)**

Then, as they turned into another street, going into a small downtown part of Modesto, which had smashed windows, burning cars and people running in different directions, some laid down low with what they had stolen, Michelle noticed something out of the right window of the car. She sat up a little and looked out, and gasped.

A man was lying down on the ground, his hand over his head. Even though he was a distance from the car, Michelle could see blood on his head and on his hand. He groaned and moved to his side a little and tried to stand up, but was knocked over by someone who ran past him and knocked him over, not bothering to apologize or even help him up. It was if no one cared for him now.

"Mommy, what's wrong with that man?" Michelle asked worryingly.

Sally looked out of the window and saw what her daughter meant. Her eyes went wide.

"Michelle, sit down, now!" she snapped, scaring her daughter a little, who did as she was told. "Don't look out the window!"

She nodded nervously. What was going on? Why was everyone running around like madmen and stealing and breaking things and hurting other people?

Her brother Alex gave a nervous moan. Michelle moved over to him and gave her baby brother a hug to try and reassure him. He moved his hand over the back of her neck as if he was returning the hug to her, thanking her sister for caring to her.

**(XX)**

"You son of a bitch!"

Sally looked out of the windscreen over to the left side and saw a tall man shouting at another man, who was trying to calm him down, an open car on the pavement next to them. By the looks of it, the tall man wanted the other man's car and Sally went wide-eyed at what she saw in the tall man's hand.

It was a gun!

As she drove past, the tall man, who seemed to have absolutely no state of mind whatsoever, placed his finger on the trigger of his weapon and shouted at the other man to go away or he would fire. The other man, who had a panic stricken look on his face, tried to calm him down, but the other man was having none of it.

Suddenly, the tall man grabbed the other man and swung his fist into him, hitting him in the face, the man who had been punched yelled out in pain and fell to the floor behind the car and out of sight. The man with the gun aimed and pulled the trigger, the sound of the gunshot filling the air.

Sally whimpered a little as she turned back to watch where she was driving and drove on, trying to hold back tears so as not to frighten her children.

_Why is this happening? _her mind seemed to cry. _Why are people doing this? _

It was from here she began to fear that what was happening here in Modesto was happening in San Francisco. Her mind, like before, began to go to the worst case scenario on her husband.

"My God, I hope you're okay, Jacob," she muttered hopefully under her breath.

**Note: Sorry if this part was a little disturbing, but let me remind you that in the first chapter of the story, as soon as you see this symbol (XX) it is a warning to a siturbing part of the chapter. **


	15. A helping hand

**Meanwhile, out in the Pacific**

**Several miles from Hawaii**

The Pacific Ocean, the largest expanse of water on Earth and a place which has seen much death and destruction on the water, the land of the islands within it and even in the skies above it. Millions had through storms, tsunamis and, recently, war. This was most notably over the last seventy years during WW2 and the Allies' struggle against the Empire of Japan, and then, after WW2 had ended, in Korea to stop the spread of Communism.

Now, however, more lives had been added to the death toll of those lost in the Pacific. All over the enormous expanse of water the fleets of the US, Australia, Japan, Russia, Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Chile, Mexico, Canada, Colombia and countless other nations across the Pacific had had their navies virtually wiped out by the invaders. Aircraft carrier groups were sunk within minutes of being found by the alien drones. Smaller groups of destroyers or cruisers, and sometimes even the occasional transport or cruise liner still out at sea in the first day of the invasion, all had been sunk with…God knows how many dead and probably even more left stranded in the waters of the Pacific.

Pinpointing the location of the ships in the Pacific was simple for the invaders. Whenever a ship's captain turned on a radar system or used a radio, a radio wave or a radar pulse was emitted into the air. All the invaders had to do was locate that signal and then follow it until they reached the source. Once there…well, what had happened to the cities around the world happened to the ships, leaving many stranded and at the mercy of the hostile Pacific.

Several few miles from Hawaii, a large number of remains of what had been part of a small fleet of US ships floated on the water. Holding onto the bits of wood or the life rafts or anything floatable were the survivors of the crews of the four US ships that had gone down here earlier on. Though they were close to friendly territory, many of their friends were wounded, having been burnt by the fires when the ships had been struck or by the blasts or suffering deep wounds from pieces of debris. Leaving them here was out of the question for these men, but they could not risk moving them either for they feared that they would not survive the journey to the Hawaiian Islands.

One of the men among the group, a tall twenty two year old with black hair and green eyes and was dressed in the usual blue navy top and black trousers, both of which were torn slightly, having been done so during the escape, clung onto a large piece of board. Next to him was his friend, who was slightly shorter than he was with blonde hair, blue eyes and was bare chested, his blue top having been ripped in two by the fall when he had jumped from the aircraft carrier he was on as it was going down. A large water-proof bandage was around his side as he had been burnt slightly by the blast from one of the alien drones. So far, he had lived through the night, but there was no way he would last much longer if they stayed out here much longer.

"Don't worry, Max," the tall black haired man said to his injured friend reassuringly. "We'll make it. Don't worry,"

His friend coughed weakly in reply. The injury had been eating away at him for the last few days now and it was not being helped by the salt water waves of the sea being swept onto them every few minutes. It hurt so much that he just wanted to cry out in pain, he just wanted it to end, to just resign himself to his fate.

His friend sighed sadly and looked around them. On the remains of the ships around them were several hundred others, most of them like Max, injured, helpless and running out of time if they did not receive any medical help, but with the amount of injured out here, no one wanted to risk going over to the islands for they feared that their friends would have gone by the time help got to them. Plus, many were thinking now that help was not going to come. They had gone down easily in the view of the islands, therefore meaning in the view of anyone who happened to be watching, so help would have come hours ago, but it had not. Whether Pearl Harbour had been hit or not, they did not know but if there was one thing they were absolutely certain of. If help had not come by now, then it would not come at all.

Or so they thought.

As Max's friend looked back down at him, hoping again that he would be okay, a nearby sailor, who was about Max's height with short red hair and blue eyes and was dressed in the usual sailor uniform, looked up and saw something approaching them from the horizon.

"Hey," he nudged the sailor next to him and pointed out at the object, which was just slightly bigger than a dot. "What is that?" he asked.

His friend squinted his eyes a little as he looked at the incoming objects. Sure enough, they were something floating on the water, but what?

"I…I think they're…I think they're…ships," he said, his eyes going wide with hope and relief. "Yeah. I think they're ships,"

His friend breathed a sigh of relief, lowering his head onto the bit of wood, which had been part of a bunk bed, they were floating on and turned so he was facing the rest of the mass of men behind him.

"Hey guys!" he called, drawing the looks of the few who still had the strength to look up. "Ships are headed towards us!" he cried happily.

Those who still had the strength to do so cheered gratefully. Finally! They were being rescued! After a day and a night in the sea, they were finally being rescued and taken to safety. Oh, things were finally starting to look up for them all.

"We're saved!" the marine said to his friend, who nodded in reply as they looked back at the approaching ships.

"Yeah, we ar-"

Suddenly, as the two looked back at the objects, their eyes went wide when they saw them close up, which they quickly suspected to be out of the ordinary with ships as there was no way they could reach them this quickly.

The ships, numbering three, turned in different directions when they were about two hundred metres from the men, one going left and the other right and the middle ship continuing on straight towards the mass of survivors. They were about sixty feet long and in a kind of diamond shape and were hovering about a foot above the water, which was being done by the four large cylindrical shaped exhaust engines on the back of the craft. Three large cube shaped small buildings, which were placed in the middle of the ships, where the diameter was about thirty five feet long, rose up from the ship, one having a small spire tower about six feet tall sticking out of the top of it. On the front and the rear ends of the ship, in the space not taken up by the buildings, were two small gun emplacements, the guns having a main spherical shape with a kind of cylindrical nozzle which had several circular pieces that could retract into each other from the smallest at the end to the largest on the front of the sphere. The guns were a kind of dark green colour and the ships were a kind of shiny light purple colour.

The ships hummed loudly as they began to near the mass of survivors. The middle ship stopped about thirty feet from the two men that had first spotted them, both staring wide-eyed at the ship, their eyes not leaving the huge gun on the front of the craft as it moved left and right as if adjusting itself to fire, in fear that it was going to fire on them. If it did, they would have no chance.

Then, to their relief, though momentarily, the ship turned left so the side of it was facing the men and hovered towards them, stopping about fifteen feet from them. Lumps appeared in the throats of each of the men as the other two ships did the same as the first ship, turning sideways and moving close to the mass of men, forming a kind of triangle formation. Some began to sweat with fear, other lowered their heads and began to silently pray in hope that they would make it out of this, though by the looks of what was going on, it did not look like any of them were going to get out of this alive.

Max's friend swallowed hard as the ship that had turned left stopped near them and he looked down at him.

"Looks like we're done for," he said to him.

Max gave a slight groan and moved his head to look at the ship. He swallowed lightly and looked back at his friend.

"Yeah, i…it…d-does," he replied weakly.

_HIIIIISSSSSSSSSS_

Max and his friend, along with just about almost everyone else in the huge group of survivors, looked at the ship near them to see a small cloud of steam rise up out of the floor of the ship, which was out of view of them as it was about seven foot tall, not adding to the extra foot that the ship was hovering above the water, and footsteps echoed out from it. Max's friend gulped, bracing himself for what was to happen.

Then, they came out. There were about six of them and they were quite frightening but also very strange to look at. They were about six foot ten to seven feet tall with dark red skin, two horns on their heads and sharp claws on their hands and feet. A small row of spikes that ran from just a few inches in front of the horns down the back of their heads, stopping at the bottom of their neck. They had no wings or tail and their legs went in a kind of bend at the knees like those of a Velociraptor and their feet looked like that of a Velociraptor, only they did not hold a sharp claw that could be used for digging into something. Their skin was a mixture of red colours, some ranging from light red, others a darker maroon colour. Some of them were carrying what looked like long silver cylindrical tubes with green lights along the sides, a tiny hole the size of a coin at the front and a small trigger mechanism on the bottom of the tube. A small circular ring was on the side of the tube. There was no doubt that these were weapons.

Two of the beings lined up along the side of the ship and stared down at the mass, one with shocked, wide red eyes as if he could not believe what he was seeing. The other, however, looked more aggressive, which added to the fact that he was taller than the other dragon standing next to him and more heavily built, and he glared at the men in the water. He gripped his weapon tightly and raised the silver tube, aiming at them and placing his finger on the trigger mechanism, the concentration and wanting to kill lingering in his eyes. Now all he had to do was fire. Max's friend went wide-eyed and threw himself over his friend, hoping his body would protect him if they did fire, though he doubted that even if it did, they would let him live. This looked to be the final moments for the mass of survivors.

"_ROKA!" _one of the other dragons, who had walked behind one of the cube shaped buildings, suddenly roared, startling the dragon with the gun and his friend next to him.

Gingerly, Max's friend looked up, along with about anyone else who had looked down from the ships, to see a third dragon storm up the ship to the two at the end. This dragon was slightly taller than the one with the gun; about six foot seven, maybe a little taller, and had slightly darker skin, a more maroon colour. The dragon with the gun looked worried when the third dragon reached him and his weapon was snatched out of his hands by the third dragon, which was glaring at him.

"_Ericà julo, ki?" _he snarled at him. _What are you doing?_

"_I…I teko yika-" _the other dragon stammered nervously, but was cut off by the other dragon.

_"Nonak mei!" _he shouted at him, hitting him in the side of the head with his hand and thrusting his weapon back into his hands. _No shooting! _He turned to the other dragon that had been next to the one with the gun and growled something. The other dragon nodded and rushed below deck, presumably where the opening was, and disappeared from sight. The third dragon turned back to the one with the gun and muttered something to him, pointing a finger at him sharply. The other dragon nodded and walked down the ship along the other side, disappearing from sight behind one of the buildings.

"What the Hell is going on?" Max's friend muttered under his breath.

Looking around at the other two ships, he went wide-eyed when he saw what the dragons on board them were doing. From what he could see, they were throwing out these kind of small metallic, saucer shaped raft-like craft to the water and then floating over to the men and…actually picking them up and taking them back to the ships! It was…well, very shocking, if there was a not a stronger word to describe it. These aliens who had attacked cities and killed thousands and destroyed everything…now they were helping the ones who they had sought to destroy!

Footfalls drew Max's friend's attention back to the ship in front of them and standing on the side was another dragon, who was a lot shorter than the others, probably about five foot seven or six. The dragon that had forced away the other dragon with the gun made a kind of barking/growling to him and the dragon on the side dived forward off the ship, landing with a splash into the water.

"What the…?" Max's friend muttered under his breath. A hint of worry began to fill him. Where had that dragon gone now? If he was under the water…what if he was trying to attack them from below?

Then, the dragon broke through the water almost right next to him, startling Max's friend, who clenched his hands into fists in case the dragon tried to do anything, though he himself was engulfed with fear over what would happen next.

The dragon, however, did nothing. Even though he saw Max's friend clench his hands into fists, he just ignored him and grabbed the board they were floating on and began to kick his legs, pushing the board over to the side of the ship. The third dragon then knelt down and reached down towards the board, the dragon that had pushed the board over to the ship grabbing Max.

"Hey, get off him!" his friend snarled, grabbing the dragon's arm forcefully. "What are you doing, let him go!"

The dragon placed his hand on top the soldier's hand, not forcefully, but gently, as if he was trying to reassure him.

"Do not worry," he said to him in clear English, making the soldier go a little wide-eyed. "We make him better. We won't hurt him, I assure you,"

Max friend looked questionably at the dragon, but the reassurance in his eyes made him, reluctantly, let go. The dragon climbed onto the board and gently picked up Max and hoisted him up to the third dragon, who picked him up and carried him over to the entrance that went below deck behind him.

"Come," the dragon on the board said to Max's friend friendly. "Let us get you out of water,"

The dragon jumped up the side of the ship, using his claws on his feet and hands to dig into it, amazingly not leaving any scratch marks, and pulled himself up onto the deck and held out his hand for Max's friend, waiting patiently for him to take it.

Max's friend could not believe it! It was really…well…it was just out of this world that these aliens, these creatures who had attacked every major city around the world, killed thousands, destroyed everything, wiped out Earth's armies in a matter of hours and done God knows what else…now they were helping them? Why were they doing this?

_There's gotta be something behind this _Max's friend said mentally to himself.

"Come," the dragon said, snapping him back into reality. His voice, though still friendly, was a little more demanding now. "There will be others waiting,"

Slowly and reluctantly, he crawled over to the end of the board and reached up and took the hand of the dragon, the feeling of the hard scales and claws, despite them being wet from the water, making him shudder a little in fear. The dragon pulled him up onto the deck and onto his feet.

"Um…t-thanks," he muttered nervously.

The dragon nodded and pointed him over to a small rectangular shaped hole in the floor of the ship's deck a few feet from them.

"Go down there. Your friends will be there with you," he said to him.

He nodded and walked over to the hole, leaving the dragon to dive back into the water once again with another splash. As he reached the hole, he looked out over the sea to see the other two ships taking the men on bard, some of the sailors helping the dragons take their friend on board, but there was no doubt that all of the sailors here were struck with the same shock as he was. Their enemy was helping them! That was something that was almost virtually unheard of in war, especially in one like this.

It looked like these invaders might not be so bad.

_For now though _Max's friend thought as he slowly walked down the silver coloured steps into the depths of the ship.


	16. Attack on the town

**Meanwhile, thirty miles north of San Francisco**

It was a cloudy day for the west coast of the USA at the moment, though for the moment, it was not going to rain, a slight blessing for the many thousands now on the run from the cities that were now under the control of the invaders, but even if it was sunny and nice weather, there were now many problems facing the mass of refugees all over the world.

First and foremost was food. With most of the supermarkets now completely looted to nothingness, along with shops and houses, people were going to be desperate as the supplies they had would run out soon. Only the small towns and villages scattered about in places all over the world had so far survived the attacks but there were now apparent reports that the invaders were beginning to land troops onto the planet and, unless they decided to hold their position in the cities, it would not be long until the alien infantry found these towns and cities.

Next on the list of problems was where they going to stay. Apart from the many towns and villages and remote buildings, there was nowhere in which everyone could stay, even with the many smaller settlements scattered across the countryside. Many had already decided to flee into the surrounding forests, jungles, hills, mountains and valleys to hide from the invaders, hoping that this would be a safe place for them, but still there would not be enough of these for every Human on the run.

And the last on the problem list was of course other people. As with what was happening in the cities, already many fight, with numerous deaths, had broken out over possession of a spot to hide or live or a car or any supplies all over the world. Humanity was still divided even in a situation in which many would expect people to band together for the survival of themselves. Unfortunately, that was all either fiction or very rare to occur. This was the real world and as with many times before even in the most extreme of desperate situations, Humans were still not united to combat this new threat.

It appeared now that the aliens had won.

North of San Francisco was a great expanse of wilderness comprising of forests and fields and small mountains and hills. It was a truly beautiful place for nature and was mostly undisturbed by Humanity. But now…now that had all come to an end. The forests were filled with refugees and soldiers, all of who had fled from the cities to escape the invaders, believing they would be shown no mercy if they were caught. It was common for large convoys to be seen moving along the main roads now, all jam packed with fleeing civilians and all heading in the same direction: to wherever they could hide from the invaders.

In one army convoy of about fifteen vehicles, made up of ten jeeps, two army trucks and three M1 Abrams tanks, the monster team sat in silence in one of the trucks, Susan with them as she had put on the ring that made her shrink down to her normal size. Insectosaurus was following them, hiding in the clouds. He had a strong sense of smell on Link so he could keep track of the convoy easily, just as long as he did not run into any.

At the moment, the convoy was moving through the forest along a sing road that ran through the trees, which towered over them like a huge protective barrier. At least it would make it difficult for the invaders to strike them from the sides, but if they were cornered on the road, they were as good as dead. They had been on the move since early this morning after stopping in a large clearing near the edge of the woods miles behind them for the night and had been lucky so far in avoiding several drone patrols from the invaders that had been roaming the skies and they hoped it would stay that way.

In one of the trucks near the back of the convoy, the monsters, obviously aside from Insectosaurus, were resting with a few other soldiers, one of them being the soldier who had found them in the National Reserve north of San Francisco. Susan was asleep, lying down on the end of the bench on the left side of the truck near the exit, Link was at the other end, resting his head against the wall that was at the back of the front of the truck, Bob had oozed away underneath one of the benches on the other side of the truck with his dessert, Janet, and Dr Cockroach was sitting on the end of the bench on the left side, looking out through the exit with apprehension and defeat lingering in his eyes. Five other soldiers were sitting in the back of the truck with them. Three were sitting on the side of the truck behind Dr Cockroach, one of them asleep and was lying down on the bench just above where Bob was. The other two were on the other side of the truck. One sitting down on the end of the bench in front of Susan, watching the landscape either side of the truck pass as they drove on, the other between her and Link, fast asleep with his knees brought up close to his chest and his head resting on them.

As the convoy drove on a bend in the road that led towards the edge of the forest, Dr Cockroach just continued to sit and stare out at the convoy and the natural landscape that passed them as they drove on. He had still not been able to comprehend that they were on the run now. For the first time since they had become a team, their team, one that had stood up to virtually everything that threatened Earth and won, they were the ones who had been dealt defeat, and a bitter defeat it was indeed. He sighed and rested his head against the wall of the truck behind him, looking up at the ceiling. It was blank, empty of anything, just like he was now. He was empty of almost every emotion, other than sadness and a slight hidden emotion of anger that was directed at himself and the fact that they had been defeated and were now the ones who had been sent packing.

_This shouldn't have happened! _He mentally growled to himself. _We're the good side! We should have won!_

THUD! The truck shook slightly as it hit a small pothole in the road. Link shot awake with a groan.

"What's goin' on?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

The others in the back of the truck awoke, groaning or yawning. Bob, on the other hand, emerged from under the bench with a loud yawn and a stretch of his free arm, (the other was holding the dessert), and smiled at everyone else cheerfully as if nothing was wrong.

"Everyone sleep well?" he inquired.

"Yeah, great," Link replied lowly.

"And it ain't helped by the fact we're runnin' scared!" one of the soldiers, the one that was sitting next to Dr Cockroach, growled. "We should've gone and beat the crap outta those things!" he muttered.

"It wouldn't have done any good, Mike," his friend, sitting next to him, replied.

"It's better than runnin'!" he retorted sternly.

"Hey guys, c'mon, stop!" the soldier sitting next to Susan and the exit of the truck piped up, getting up from his seat and pointing at them like a parent telling off a child. "We won't get anywhere by arguing!" he told them.

The other two soldiers sighed, the one who had wanted to fight the invaders huffing and folding his arms and looking out of the exit of the truck with an annoyed expression.

"Still think we should stop and fight 'em!" he muttered under his breath.

Susan, meanwhile, sighed at the argument going on between the soldiers and looked over at Dr Cockroach to see him staring out at almost emotionlessly at the outside. A hint of worry began to set into her. He had been quiet ever since they had left the clearing this morning and had barely spoken to them.

Hoping that he was okay, she got up and walked over to him, kneeling down next to him. He knew she was there but he did not even turn his head to look at her, he just kept looking on at the outside world as if oblivious to everything else around him, as if it was the outside that only mattered to him now.

"Are you okay, Doc?" Susan asked him gently.

A pause hung between them for a moment before he replied with a sigh. "Yes…I'm…I'm fine, Susan, dear," he replied.

"Are you sure?" she pressed him, concerned for him. "You've barely spoken since we left this morning,"

"Don't worry, my dear, I'm fine," he insisted, though in a low tone. Susan, though, was still not convinced, but as she went to reply, a small slot opened up in the wall at the other end of the truck.

"Alright, everyone wakey, wakey, back there," the driver called. "We're nearing the next town and we're gonna stop off for fuel and to find out where we have to go next,"

The tiny slot closed and everyone sat up in their seats, some of the soldiers getting their weapons from under their seats, loading their weapons with clips of ammo just in case they were attacked.

The convoy turned left at another bend in the road and the landscape outside changed from a forest to see it replaced with a sea of grass that was cut in two by the road. Then, buildings began to appear either side of them and before they knew it, they were driving down the main road of a small town, passing houses, shops, garages, hardware shops etc. However, if there one thing that struck them about the town it was that it was almost empty, save for the convoy and a few civilian cars and other army vehicles that were parked on the streets. A few civilians and soldiers were about in the streets, having come here as well as part of another convoy, probably heading in the same direction as this convoy, which was as far away from here as possible and hopefully to somewhere that was safe.

The convoy vehicles began to turn in different directions, some going down side roads, others in car parks or onto small patches of grass within the town that had once been used for people to walk their pets or enjoy a good summer's day. There was no more of that now. Now all there was in the air was fear of the invaders and whether they would come or not and a desperation to flee before they did reach this town.

The truck the monsters were in turned right into a small side road and stopped alongside a pavement, the engine turning off almost instantly as the vehicle came to a halt. The slot opened promptly and the driver ordered: "Okay, everyone out," and those in the back of the truck climbed out of the vehicle.

Dr Cockroach gazed at the town around him when he got out of the truck. It was a pretty little town. The houses were built well, reminding him of Modesto, and some had children's toys in the front gardens. A few trees lined the pavement and a bench was placed on the other side of the street next to a payphone on the side of a corner shop.

However, some of the houses and shops, by the looks of the broken windows and forced open doors and, occasionally, the contents of what had been inside the building scattered on the ground near it, had been broken into. One sight that did disgust Dr Cockroach was that they had stopped outside a hardware shop and as he looked at the forced open door, he saw, on the diamond shaped black and white marble tiled floor, a smashed open safe with the few remaining dollar notes scattered about. He sighed and shook his head in disbelief, unable to believe that someone would really care that much about money in a time when it was hardly going to do them any good now that the whole planet was virtually under threat from a race of alien invaders. It was unlikely they were going to spare the one(s) who had taken the money if they gave it to them.

"It's horrible, isn't it?" he heard Susan ask as she walked up next to him, making him jump a little.

"Yes…it is, my dear," he replied. He sighed. "I can only hope we find a way through this,"

"Can't you invent anything, doc?" she asked him. "I mean, there has to be something you can use against them,"

"It's not that simple, my dear," he told her, looking at her. "If you had not noticed, my creations were for science and knowledge, not for war. Plus, even if I could invent something, what good would it do? These invaders are all over the world this time rather than in one secluded area," he looked back at the hardware shop. "This time, these invaders have bested us. I don't think anything will stop them now,"

"Doc, don't say things like that," Susan begged him, placing a hand on his arm. "We _will _win eventually. We just…just…we just need time…time to…well,…oh, I don't know…find a weakness or something. They've gotta have a weakness. I mean, everyone does don't they?"

He nodded slightly. "That is true, my dear. But…the real question is: Will we discover it in time to use it against them?"

Behind the two, Link stretched his arms as far as they would go, groaning a little as he did. As he lowered them, he began to search the skies for their missing friend.

"Wonder where Insecto is?" he muttered to himself.

No sooner than he finished that sentence, as if it was on cue, a large shape broke through the clouds and descended towards the ground. Link smiled upon seeing his friend, whose wings were kicking up huge gusts of wind on the ground, causing many people to look and point up at Insectosaurus.

"Hey, furball!" Link greeted as Insecto landed on a large patch of the road about twenty feet from them. "Wondered where you were for a mo-"

Insecto interrupted him with a loud roar, the look on his face told Link that something was up. He sounded very worried about something. He roared again, telling his smaller hybrid friend what was wrong.

"W-w-what do you mean?" Link asked worryingly.

"Link," Dr Cockroach, who had overheard him, said. Link looked over his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"Hang on," Link replied and he looked back at Insectosaurus. "What is it your telling me?" he asked him.

Insectosaurus roared again and Link went a little wide-eyed. "Oh no!" he said.

"Link, what's the matter?" Susan asked in a scared voice.

"Insecto's just told me he saw a load of drones in the sky," Link told them, drawing a few wide-eyed worried looks from his friends and the soldiers around them.

_"Alright, everyone, can I have your attention, please!"_ a soldier, standing on the top of a truck parked nearby, said from a megaphone, forming a small crowd of civilians and soldiers around the vehicle. The gang and the soldiers with them looked over at him. _"Thank you. Alright…um, do not panic, but we have had word of invader drones nearby," _worried muttering and a few gasps followed this. _"We are going to evacuate now, so everyone get into the vehicles and leave in an orderly fashion. We are not gonna panic. We are not gonna-CRAP! LOOK OUT!"_

BOOM! Suddenly, the air seemed to be filled with blasts and explosions as a swarm of drones shot down from the sky and began firing madly at the town. Screams and shouts filled the air as the civilians and the soldiers rushed for cover. One blast struck the truck the soldier with the megaphone was standing on, blowing it up into a pillar of fire and throwing the soldier through a smashed open window of a nearby house, killing him. Another landed on the roof of a small supermarket a few metres down the road from where the monsters were, blowing open the roof and causing part of the side of it to collapse. A few soldiers returned fire on the drones with their weapons but their faster speed outdid how quick the soldiers could fire.

Dr Cockroach grabbed Susan by the arm and pulled her into the hardware shop, Link, Bob and two of the soldiers close behind them.

"Wait, what about, Insecto?" Link shouted in alarm at realising their friend was still outside. He ran back outside and shouted at Insecto, who was trying desperately to cover his body with his wings as several blasts pelted his body. "Insecto, get outta here!" Link shouted to him.

Insectosaurus roared something back, a worried look on his face.

"No! Get outta here!" Link shouted at him sternly. "Go! We'll meet you in the forest! GO!"

Reluctantly, Insectosaurus obeyed and flapped his wings, lifting his enormous body up into the air and turned towards the next part of the forest, slightly further on down the road they had been on, and flew off towards it. He looked back at the town as pillars of fire erupted all over it as if the very place itself was self-destructing or something, but was forced to quickly fly on as a few drones pursued him, firing away madly as they chased after the huge insect.

Link sighed through gritted teeth and ran back into the building.

"What are we gonna do now?" one of the soldiers asked worryingly.

"We have to try and find a way out of here," Dr Cockroach replied.

"How?" Susan asked. "If we go out there, who's to say we won't get hit by a blast or something?"

"Look, my dear, we'll have to risk it," Dr Cockroach told her. He looked up at Link. "Where's Insectosaurus gone, Link?" he asked him.

"I told him to head to the forest further on down the road," Link replied, pointing in the direction in which their friend flew off in. Dr Cockroach nodded.

"Then we shall head that way as well," he said. He looked around the shop and saw a door on the left wall near the corner where the left wall met the back wall. No doubt it led outside. "Come on," he said.

He rushed over to the door and forced it open; the others following close behind. They came into an alleyway between the hardware shop and a sweet shop to their left and a long building with multiple doors on the back, meaning it held several shops. At the end of the alleyway was an exit onto the road. The group ran down the road, blasts erupting nearby. At one point, when they were near the end of the alleyway, a large vehicle moved out on the road in front of them. It was one of the M1 Abrams tanks. A soldier was manning the machine gun on the top of it and he was firing away desperately at the drones, his teeth gritted hard in anger and concentration as he tried to shoot one down but it was hopeless. As he fired, he saw the group.

"Go! Get outta here! Go!" he shouted to them.

The group ran out of the alleyway, pausing on the pavement as Dr Cockroach looked down the road to see it lead off into the forest about fifty metres or so from the edge of the town, which was about seventy feet away ahead of them. That was where Insectosaurus had headed to so that was where they needed to go.

"Quick, this way!" he said to the group.

The group ran on down the road, but just as they passed the side of the long building next to them…

BOOM! The Abrams tank behind them suddenly exploded into a fireball, the force of the explosion throwing them to the ground. Susan looked up with a groan to see the tank about ten feet in the air near them. It fell and landed with a thunderous crash on the other side of the road on a house, tearing the side of the structure down completely.

"Oh no!" one of the soldiers said, shooting to his feet and rushing over, his friend close behind. "Mike, you okay?" he shouted desperately as they reached the tank.

The monsters rushed over to the smashed vehicle to see the hatch where the soldier they had seen on the machine gun had been just seconds before. Groaning came from inside.

"Quick, we gotta help him!" the soldier said hysterically. He wanted to help his friend and get him out of here.

"WATCH OUT!" a nearby woman screamed, pointing up at the sky.

Those that heard her, including the squad, looked up and saw a drone shoot overhead, but as it did, something fell from the bottom of it and landed on the houses the tank had landed on.

BOOM! It exploded, incinerating the tank instantly, along with the two soldiers. The monsters were thrown through the air and landed to the ground on the other side of the road. Susan shot up, a few tears forming in her eyes as she stared at the fireball. Dr Cockroach stared wide-eyed at the wreckage. Link muttered: "Oh God!" and Bob covered the jello with his hand.

"Don't look, Janet!" he said to it in a way akin to a parent trying to make sure their child did not see something terrible.

More blasts flew down from the sky and landed across the road, blowing up a truck and a parked pickup truck. One of the other M1 Abrams tanks reversed down a side road near the entrance to the town the convoy had come through, It's machine gun, a soldier on the back of the tank, even the main cannon of the vehicle firing up at the sky in desperation to try and shoot down the drones, but all in vain. As it disappeared behind the hairdressers on the corner of the road, another of the drones flew overhead and dropped a blast behind the hairdressers. Another deafening boom explosion erupted from behind the building and large pieces of metal, along with rubble from the building, were launched up into the air.

The gang could not believe what they were seeing. People were under attack! Defenceless people who they had sworn to protect at any cost from any threat, and they could do nothing as these alien drones attacked the town mercilessly! It…it made them feel sick to their stomachs…it made them feel as if they had let them down!

Dr Cockroach looked around. There was nothing more they could do here now. They had to get out of here, but how? Running across the field would, no doubt, attract the attention of the drones. They had to find another way out of here, and fast before they were blown apart.

Then, his eyes rested on a small van parked in a car park next to a petrol station shop. That was to be their ticket out of here, providing they could drive it.

"Quick, this way!" Dr Cockroach said to his friends.

He got up and ran over to the van, the others following him. He opened the driver's seat door, which was unlocked and climbed inside, Susan getting into the passenger seat and Link and Bob getting into the back of the van, slamming shut the doors behind them.

"C'mon, where are those bloody keys!" Dr Cockroach growled as he and Susan began to search the compartments and under their seats or in the sides of doors. As they searched, the van shook slightly a few times as several blasts landed quite close to them.

"Ah! Nothing!" Dr Cockroach said after a few moments. "Well., thankfully, I know how to hotwire. This shouldn't take too long,"

He reached under the steering wheel and pulled off the part of the compartment below it, revealing the wires inside it. He began to fumble about with the wires, trying to make a circuit so that would power and the car and enable them to escape. As he did this, Susan looked around with fear as the ground and several buildings exploded into fireballs as several blasts hit the town. An army truck shot past them, two soldiers in the back firing up at the sky with their weapons. She watched it turn a left corner, skidding and almost tipping over as it was going faster than it should do, and disappeared from sight.

"Ah, there we go!" Dr Cockroach said as he sat up. A loud humming sound erupted from the engine. He had got it started. "Hold on!" he warned.

He pressed his foot down on the accelerator and drove the car forward out of the car park and turned left and drove down the road at full speed, the devastated buildings and vehicles of the town racing by as he drove at almost full speed, determined to get out of here quickly.

Suddenly, as they raced out of the town and down the road, the forest getting nearer, the ground seemed exploded around them, throwing the van wildly from side to side, Dr Cockroach struggling to keep control. Susan looked out of the window next to her to see a drone flying towards them, a large green blast charging up in front of it.

"They're chasing us!" she panicked. "Doc, can't you go any faster?"

"Trust me, Susan, I'd really like to!" he replied. He looked in his side view mirror to see the blast on the front of the drone flying after them fire out towards them, Fear gripped him as if he had been grabbed by a giant invisible hand. "Hang on!" he warned.

BANG! The blast struck the ground under the van, only just missing it, throwing the vehicle into the air and causing it to fall sideways. With several loud crashes, the vehicle flipped over several times down the road, smashing through the bushes and being bounced off the tree trunks, which were hit by several more blasts, each one exploding into a fireball as it was hit.

Finally, the truck came to a halt on It's side in a small gap between a few trees. No more noise came from it and it lay there on the ground, a casualty of the attack on the town, where the screams, blasts and explosions continued to emanate into the air.


	17. Captured

**Later that day, thirty miles east of Modesto**

The evening had now descended over the West Coast, filling the sky with a mostly ever stretching blackness coming in from the east. Most of the sky was filling with thousands upon thousands of stars. It was a beautiful scene and one that brought calm to the people of Earth below witnessing it who were now locked in a terrible war against a race of invaders who had come from the place these thousands of stars were placed. Even though something of the universe was trying to destroy them, it looked as though it was trying to reassure them not to give up hope, as if making them believe in that they would be victorious against these invaders, but whether they would or not would be up to fate to decide.

The roads leading out of Modesto were mostly empty now, as they were for most of the cities around the world now. Though, there were many abandoned cars scattered up and down the road and other tell-tale signs told anyone going down the roads leading out of Modesto that there had been people here, such as lost belongings, like clothes and books and sometimes even entire full suitcases, lining the roads. Virtually, it had come to the point where everyone was just throwing away their belongings and escaping on foot or by car or on a bike or on a horse or a dingy or boat or any other way that made it able for them to escape quickly into the vast expanses of the interior of the United States. There, at least they hoped, they would be safe from the invaders.

Near Highway 49 that ran down the West Coast on the other side of the mountains to the east of Modesto, a single lone car drove, weaving in and out of the large blockades caused by abandoned cars and trucks. Inside it was a woman with her two children, a young girl and a baby boy. It was Sally, Michelle and Alex. They had been on the move for a while now, not stopping at all for anything. There was nothing to stop for now anyway. All that mattered was that they get as far as they could into the interior of the country. Every mile they moved into the country put them a mile further from the invaders. Hopefully, they would escape.

In the back seats, Michelle and her brother Alex slept, breathing silently with the rythm of movement with the car as their mother drove on, also silent. She had barely spoken since they had left Modesto. What she had seen there had really shaken her up, but that was not the only thing. Ever since they had left their hometown, she had been wondering about her husband. She had not heard from him and with the invaders' attack on Modesto, there was no telling if he was okay or if he was dead. Oh, she just wanted to find out if he was okay or not right now! Her worry was eating away at her and driving her crazy, but she had to keep a calm face so as not to worry her children.

_I hope your okay Jacob _she mentally muttered to herself.

As she drove the car around another gap between a ditch on the side of the road and an overturned car, the back tire hit a small pothole, making it rock slightly. In the back seat, Michelle groaned and rubbed her eyes, stifling a slight yawn.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" her mother asked her, looking over her shoulder at her.

"Yeah, I'm okay, mommy," she replied. She looked around her in the car, looking next to her and at the passenger seat, hoping that it would be filled by their missing family member, but it was not. "Mommy, where's daddy?" she asked.

Sally paused for a moment as if frozen. She had been asking herself that question many times over the last few hours and had not found an answer, but what was she to tell her daughter? The same thing? Or was she to lie in order to reassure her daughter?

"I..." she began. "I...He's in San Francisco," she answered quickly, hating herself for doing so.

"I hope he's okay," Michelle said.

"I'm sure he's okay, sweetie," Sally replied.

She too was hoping that he was okay, but she hated herself for not knowing whether he was in San Francisco or if he was on the run like they were. Out of both of those suggestions, though, she hoped he was okay and that he would somehow meet up with them again.

The car came to a slow halt as ahead of them on the road was a small van that was blocking the way on. Sally sighed in frustration. Great! With the way blocked they were going to have to find an alternate route to go further on.

Or... Sally looked out of the window of the car door next to her at a small flat part of the ground on the right side of the road near a small group of bushes that were just on the outside of a small forest. Maybe if they went along the ground there, they could get back onto the road. It was quite a steep drop, though, and if the car tipped over onto It's side or top then that was it for them. Well, they could not wait here so they were going to have to take the risk.

"Michelle, hang on back there," Sally warned.

Before Michelle could ask, her mother drove the car off the side of the road onto the grass, the car shaking a little and making a loud thud as it did. Alex stirred and groggily woke up.

"You two okay back there?" Sally asked, stopping the car and looking over her shoulder at them. Michelle was a little shaken up and her brother gave a worried moan. Other than that, they were both okay. "Sorry about that," she apologized as she looked back ahead of her through the windscreen. "At least we can get out of here no-"

"Uh, mommy?" Michelle's voice asked, though it wounded very worried.

"What is it, Michelle?" her mother asked, looking over her shoulder.

THUD! All of a sudden, the car shook wildly, throwing the three about in their seats. Alex began to cry. Michelle moved over to her brother, though her eyes easily told anyone looking at her that she was scared beyond belief. Her mother Sally sat in her car seat, breathing heavily, staring up at the ceiling, her eyes as wide as dinner plates.

"Sssssshhh! It's okay, Alex!" Michelle said softly to her brother, giving him a cuddle to try and calm him and reassure him he was okay.

"You two okay?" their mother asked.

Michelle nodded. Then, all of a sudden, something began to move outside the car. A worried look came onto her face and she pointed out through the windscreen at the outside. Sally looked and went wide-eyed.

Something, or someone, was standing out there. Something, or someone, big!

Suddenly, the car door to the driver's seat was pulled open and a light green neon light shone onto the car, blinding them. Sally and Michelle covered their eyes with their arms, Michelle placing her hand over her brothers' eyes, wondering what this was.

_"KORONAK USHI!"_

The neon green light slowly dimmed and Sally lowered her arm, as did Michelle, who gently took her brother out of his car seat, both her and her mother looking out through the car door, waiting for what was to happen next.

Then, a large figure appeared in the car door and Sally and Michelle gasped, their eyes unable to comprehend what it was they were seeing. It was a dragon, a blood red skin coloured dragon. The creatures' red eyes stared at her, but not with anger or hatred, but with reassurance in them.

"W-w-who are y-you!" Sally gasped, backing away, but being stopped by the other car door.

"One of the 'invaders'," the dragon replied, having to raise his voice a little as Alex was still crying. "Come, we are taking you out of here," he reassured them gently.

"To where?" Michelle piped up, holding her crying brother close to her.

"To an area of large scale construction," the dragon replied, looking at her briefly before exiting the car.

The car shook again as the sound of the trunk door being opened filled the air. Michelle and Sally looked out through the back window to see another dragon, though this one was taller than the other and had a lighter red skin, pull out a suitcase and slam the trunk shut. Slung around his shoulder on a kind of metallic strap was a long silver tube weapon. Michelle looked questionably with fear at her mother. These dragons seemed to want them to come with them. Should they listen? Maybe it was best if they did because they had seen the weapon of these dragons, as well as the creatures themselves, and they feared what would happen to them if they refused.

Slowly, Sally got out of the car and stood up. About ten feet from the car, in the bushes, was a parked large oval shaped vehicle that was completely silver and had a window going around part of the front of it. A large square opening was on the back of it that led into the vehicle. Four large wheels were attached to the bottom of the oval shaped vehicle. The dragon that had opened the car door was standing by the back of the vehicle. He said something in his language to the dragon with the suitcase, who nodded and climbed into the back of the vehicle. He looked over at the car and saw Sally standing there.

"Come," he called. "We are taking you to safety," he reassured her.

Sally stayed where she was, not knowing whether to believe him or not. After all, these invaders had attacked cities across the Earth, killed thousands of people and had caused destruction on a scale never before seen in Human history so it was understandable that she was reluctant to believe to him that they were taking her and her children to 'safety'. For all she knew, this safety could be a place where they might not return.

"Do not worry," the dragon told her reassuringly, walking up to her. "I assure you that you and your children will be fine," he added.

Again, Sally did not look convinced, but what could she say? This dragon towered over her, he must have been about six foot four against her five feet five. No match against him if he decided to attack her or her children, who were even more vulnerable than her. She sighed after a moment and opened her car door.

"C'mon, Michelle," she said to her daughter, who, though reluctantly and slowly, got out of the car and took her mother's hand. Alex had stopped crying and had fallen asleep in his sister's arms. The dragon walked back over to the large oval shaped vehicle, expecting them to follow.

"Mommy...where are we going?" Michelle asked her mother.

"I don't know, sweetie," she answered, staring fearfully at the dragon. Her eyes glanced over to the side of the road for a moment, as if she was planning on grabbing her children and running towards something they could hide behind to try and lose these dragons, but it then hit her that these dragons, although they had not attacked them now, could easily kill all three of them if they tried to run. It was hopeless and she sighed in knowing that. "I'll take Alex," she said to her daughter, who gently passed her the baby.

Holding her daughter by her hand and her son in the other, she walked over to the oval shaped vehicle. The dragon with the suitcase walked past them and opened a silver door on the side of the front of the vehicle and climbed inside, closing it behind him, the door becoming part of the wall instantly. The other dragon, the one who had walked over to their car, climbed into the back of the vehicle and held out his hand to Michelle, who, gingerly, her mother feeling the same way, took it and lifted her in. Sally climbed into the back of the vehicle, which was much like the back of an army truck, only everything was silver coloured rather than dark green or whatever colour it was they used. Their suitcase was placed under one of the seats, which Michelle and Sally sat down on. The dragon who had helped them into the vehicle walked to the silver wall at the end and hit his hand twice on it. Then, with a sudden jolt, the oval vehicle began to move forward down along the side of the road back in the direction of Modesto.

Sally, who was gently cradling her son in her arms, and her daughter looked out through the exit of the back of the truck, watching the road and the abandoned cars that were on it go by quickly. They looked worrying at each other, knowing they had been captured by these invaders and were now being taken away to uncertainty, whether to a safe place like the dragon, who sat down on the seat next to the wall on the other side of the back of the vehicle and laid down, quickly falling asleep, had reassured them or to a place where they might not return.

They were just going to have to wait and see what would happen and pray they would be okay.


	18. Into the forest

**Meanwhile, several hours earlier.**

"Ugh!"

From the remains of the van lying on It's side in the forest near the town, the bent passenger door was pushed opened and Susan climbed out, her body aching all over from the crash. In trying to keep herself up, she fell from the side of the van to the ground, though a tiny layer of grass and a few leaves cushioned her fall.

"Ow!" she rasped as she hit the ground.

Groaning, she sat up, having to place a hand on the bottom of the van, which was facing her as it was on It's side, to keep herself up and rubbed the side of her head with her hand. Her silver hair was messy and part of her suit was torn on the sleeve.

"That was wild," she muttered to herself as she pulled herself to her feet. She climbed up onto the side of the van, her arms screaming at her for doing so as they ached like hell, and over to the door and peered inside. "You okay, Doc?" she asked.

Her friend was lying with his head on the dashboard in front of him. The steering wheel had been torn off completely and was lying at the doctor's feet, the windscreen was smashed, as were the two windows of the doors, the glass scattered everywhere, and the seats had been torn from place from within the front of the van.

"Doc?" Susan repeated, her voice growing anxious. Still no response from him. Worry began to fill her like water filling up a tank. She jumped down from the van to the ground and took the ring off her finger. At once, her limbs began to stretch and everything around her seemed to shrink. She began to shoot up towards the trees like a missile being fired, her head heading straight for the branches high above her. Luckily, though, she stopped just below them, now at her fifty foot height. The ring between her fingers had grown with her and she placed it in her chest pocket.

THUD! The back doors of the van flew open and Link pulled himself out of the vehicle, his hand on his head and groaning and staggering. Bob followed, though he was okay, but he was making sure Janet was.

"You two okay?" Susan asked them.

"Ye-ow! Yeah!" Link replied, shaking his head a little as if trying to shake the pain out of him.

"Hey, Link, can you tell me if Janet's gonna be okay?" Bob asked a little worryingly, holding the jello up to him.

Link just stared at him in confusion as if he was mad, but, nevertheless, he decided to take the plate and just glanced at it for a moment before handing it back to Bob.

"Yeah, she's fine," he said un-interestingly.

"Oh, cool, thanks," his friend replied, relieved.

Susan just rolled her eyes and looked back into the truck. Just as she did, two hands rose out of the front of the truck through the open door and Dr Cockroach pulled himself up, groaning a little. One of his antennae was bent slightly.

"Ouch!" he rasped as he climbed out.

"You alright, doc?" Susan asked him worryingly, holding out a finger for him, which he grasped with his hand and she helped pull him out.

He nodded. "Yes, I'm fine, my dear," he replied, rubbing his head, as she set him down on the ground. He leant against the van and, wincing slightly and breathing in to brace himself for the pain he knew would come out of this, straightened his antennae. He gritted his teeth to conceal the pain and, thankfully, it ebbed away after a few moments.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, me and Bob are okay," Link replied.

"And Janet," Bob reminded him.

Link rolled his eyes. "And Janet," he added.

"Should we go back to the town?" Susan inquired.

"Don't know if that's a good idea, Susan," Link replied.

"Well, we need to make sure if there's anyone else," Dr Cockroach piped up, walking over to the edge of the trees, pushing the bushes and the low branches out of the way. When he reached the edge of the forest, an unimaginable scene, one which he had not seen for a long time, greeted him.

The sky was a mixture of the usual dusk colours, gold, red, orange etc. and the sky was still a light blue with barely any clouds. It looked really beautiful, and it was for anyone who was looking at it, but below this lovely sky was something else, something horrible, and that was the town, or what was left of it.

The town was completely in ruins. All of the buildings were in ruins, some bellowing pillars of smoke as they were still burning, destroyed cars, army trucks and tanks, lay scattered everywhere and much of the ground leading up the road they had been on earlier in the van was torn up and scarred. This place…it was virtually a warzone, or what was left in the aftermath of a warzone. It was…just unbelievable to comprehend that a town in a country that was, at this time, the superpower of the world, had been attacked and pretty much wiped off the face of the planet. There was no telling how many dead there were in the town, but Dr Cockroach did know one thing: there was no point going over there.

He sighed and walked back to his friends, who looked up at him questionably as he approached.

"There's no point," he said to them. "The town has been completely wiped out,"

The others gave each other shocked and defeated looks. They _had _lost this time. They did not want to believe it, or that this invasion was happening, but whether they wanted to or not, they just had to accept the fact that this invasion _was _happening. Also, they knew that they were going to need a lot more than their original skills and luck if they were to win this time.

"So where do we go now?" Bob asked after a few seconds, looking at the others for an answer.

Silence hung in the air like a cloud for a moment before it was broken by Link.

"We should go and look for Insecto," he said. "He'll be wondering where we are,"

The others nodded and began to move away from the van into the forest. As they went, Susan stopped and looked back towards the town, just about seeing it through a small clearing in the leaves and branches in the tree tops. She sighed sadly, knowing that she and her friends had let these innocents down, these people who were looking to them for help and protection. They had let them down and now there was nothing they could do.

With another sigh, she continued on into the forest depths after her friends. They were just going to have to accept it and move on and hope it would not happen again.


	19. Start of a new life

**Early the next day**

**Date: July 28****th**

**Golden Gate Bridge**

The Golden Gate Bridge. One of the two symbols of San Francisco in America. Before, it was used by thousands every day to enter and exit the city whether to get to work or to go home after work or a day in the city or to go to the National Reserve across the bay and such. On the right side, those on the bridge could see Alcatraz and Angel Island in the bay and on the other was the great expanse of the Pacific that led to the other side of the world.

However, now it was being used a sing path for going into the city, as was the Bay Bridge further down the side of San Francisco, or what was left of the city. On the reserve side, there were hundreds of parked cars and trucks, among them were many of the oval shaped trucks the invaders were using to get around. Hundreds of people were crowding the end of the bridge. The entrance onto it was guarded by a group of fearsome looking dragons. Nearby, another group of dragons were sitting behind tables and asking the names of those who were being told to go up to the table. From there, the people would then be loaded into nearby trucks and driven back across the bridge into the city. There, these people awaited an uncertain fate. Exactly what, they did not know.

"Alright, keep moving! Keep moving!"

The dragons were shouting at the crowd to continue towards the bridge and not to separate and scatter. Another of the oval shaped truck started and drove onto the bridge towards the city, on board were another group of civilians, being taken to an uncertain fate on the other side of the water that marked the exit between the wide open Pacific and the closed in San Francisco bay. To many, it felt the same way on the reserve side of the bridge and the captured city of San Francisco, only this time rather than an entrance into a bay or into the largest ocean on Earth, it was now a hell and a way of freedom, the city being the hell and the way to freedom being the natural landscape behind the crowd that was the rest of California and the way into the interior of the country.

"Careful now,"

Another of the oval shaped trucks had just come to a halt on a small dirt clearing near the crowd and the driver got out. At the back, another dragon jumped down and held out his hand to the woman inside, who was carrying a baby. Her younger daughter, who was carrying their suitcase, went first, taking the hand of the dragon, who picked her up and placed her on the ground, and then helped her mother down onto the ground.

"Head over to the crowd," the dragon said to them, pointing over at the mass of people.

Sally nodded. "Um…thank you," she replied hesitantly and the dragon walked past them over to the driver and they began to talk to each other in their language, the two looking over at the crowd.

Sally and Michelle looked over at the crowd, amazed by this large group of people in a small area. Nervously, they walked over towards it, the shouting and calling gradually filling more of their ears as they came nearer. As soon as they reached the edge of the crowd, they quickly became absorbed into it.

"Michelle, stay close to me," her mother called, lowering her other hand to her daughter, which she took.

She tried pushing her way through the crowd, but found that they were pushing her back. People knocked into one another, occasionally sending someone to the ground, others were shouting to each other for trying to find their family members or friends. Two men near the edge of the crowd began to shout at each other, something over them knocking into each other. One of the men, who was shorter than the other, swung his fist at the other man, hitting him in the side of the head. The other man swore and lunged at his opponent, pinning him to the ground and swinging his fists wildly at him. Their shouting and fighting drew the attention of most of the crowd and some of the dragons, who rushed over to the two to break up the fight.

Sally gripped her daughter's hand tighter to make sure they were not separated in the push by some of the crowd members who were rushing to see the fight.

"Hold on close to my hand, Michelle," Sally shouted to her daughter over the noise of the crowd.

"I'm trying to, mommy!" she shouted back.

Her grip on her mother's hand lessened as her mother was pushed and forced away from her. Michelle tried to hold on tighter, but it was no use. Her mother began to panic and tried to push back through to her daughter, but it too was becoming more difficult. She tried to hold on! She had to!

Then, her hand was knocked off of her daughter's and she was pushed away, quickly disappearing into the many faces of the crowd.

"Mommy!" Michelle cried.

"Michelle!" she heard her mother shout back but she could not see her. People knocked into her from all sides as if they did not care she was there. She stared up scared at the many people moving around her. One woman knocked into her and made her drop her suitcase and almost sent her to the ground. Michelle picked herself up and tried to squeeze her way through the gaps between people away from everyone that was pushing and shoving in the direction of the bridge, hoping that she would find her mother and baby brother.

"STOP IT!" one of the dragons breaking up the fight roared loudly as he grabbed the shorter man and yanked him away with such force that his arms were sent into the face of a captured soldier standing behind him, knocking him over though, thankfully, he was grabbed by a group of people near him. The man struggled and tried elbowing the legs of the dragon holding him. Another dragon rushed over to his comrade and slammed his foot as hard as he could into the stomach of the man he was holding. The man cried out and was dragged away. The taller man, who had been punched in the eye, was dragged away after him by another dragon.

"Alright, back! All of you!" one of the dragons commanded sternly, aiming his silver tube weapon at the crowd and jerking it towards them as if trying to stab them with it. The crowd obeyed and began to gradually move back towards the bridge.

On the other side of the crowd, Michelle had found her way out of the pushing and shoving, but now she had lost her way. She looked around worryingly, trying to find her mother and her brother, but there were so many people, all of who were moving about that it was just too difficult.

"Mommy!" she called out desperately. "Mommy, where are y-Opfh!"

She was stopped where she by walking into a pair of legs, a pair of red legs. Her eyes grew wide with fear as her eyes as they followed the legs up to a torso and a pair of arms and then a neck the head of a dragon. This one was big, about six foot eight, maybe even taller! The creature's red eyes stared down at her, a look of what looked like disappointment or annoyance on his face, the same feeling lingering in his pupils. Michelle gulped and backed away slightly in fear of what the dragon was going to do to her.

The dragon bent forward slightly, his hands reaching out towards her. She closed her eyes tightly, expecting something terrible.

But then, she felt them gently place themselves under her armpits and lift her up. As she opened her eyes, the dragon placed her next to his shoulder, his arm around the bottom of her back, holding her in place. He took the suitcase from her and held it in his other hand before looking back at her into her eyes. She saw that they were no longer filled disappointment or annoyance, but more of…softness and sympathy.

"Are you lost?" he asked her gently.

She stared at him, surprised, for a moment. What? He was asking her…if she was lost? Wow! This…this was a change from what she expected.

Slowly, she nodded. The dragon gave her a small smile. "Do not worry. I shall help you find your parents," he said to her reassuringly.

He walked over towards three parked oval shaped trucks and, pushing Michelle into him with his arm so as to hold her place, jumped up onto the top of the end one and walked across the tops of them, his feet making loud thudding noises on the metal as he went.

As she went, Michelle looked at this dragon holding her. He was a lot different from the other dragons here. Next to him being a lot taller than almost all of the others, his skin was more of a paler red, almost a kind of sunburn colour, only just a little darker. Maybe he was older than all of the others, probably explaining why he had lighter skin. After all, some people's skin would go slightly lighter when they were old. Maybe this one was old. If he was though, she was amazed how he could still jump about and that he looked quite heavily built.

The dragon stepped down from the top of the end truck and walked around the edge of the crowd to where the tables had been set up. Another dragon, about three inches shorter than the one who was holding Michelle, was standing next to the table, watching the dragon sitting behind it talk to a young man of about twenty five who had his young daughter, about the same age as Michelle, with him. The man was telling the dragon behind the table their names and the dragon wrote it down on a piece of paper not much different from forms businessmen and such used here on Earth.

_"Munaka,"_ the dragon holding Michelle called as he approached. The dragon next to the table looked towards them and walked over.

"_Tura Oken," _he replied, _Hello Oken_. He looked at Michelle and said something in his native language to the dragon holding her, who replied with something else as well, again in their language. Michelle watched them talk intently, but with a slight hint of worry. What were they saying? More importantly: what were they going to do to her?

The two stopped speaking and the dragon who had walked over to them, called Munaka, nodded and looked at Michelle.

"I'm going to find your parents," he said to her in a reassuring voice, but just as he turned to walk towards the crowd a woman's voice cried out: "Michelle!" and the three, along with several others in the crowd, looked to see Sally, with Michelle's baby brother Alex in her arms, squeezing through the crowd. However, she stopped dead when she saw Michelle in the arm of the dragon, a worried look on her face as if she was scared they were going to take her daughter away from her.

The dragon holding Michelle, Oken, thanked Munaka and walked over towards Sally, who stared uneasily at him with mixed feelings of fear and anger. What was he doing with her daughter? Why was he holding her?

Oken stopped in front of Sally, who had managed to squeeze out of the crowd and waited tensely for what was to happen, staring uneasily at Oken.

"Is this your daughter?" he asked her.

Sally nodded but said nothing. Oken gently put her back down on the ground and Michelle over to her mother, who knelt down, and embraced her tightly in a warm hug. For a moment, they were lost in the hug, having finally been reunited, and in a way they really did not expect. Then, Sally looked up at Oken, who gave a small smile as he looked back down at her.

"She was lost," he said to her.

Sally gave a small nod. "Thank you," she replied quietly.

The two stood up. "You best get going," Oken said to them, giving them the suitcase. "One of the trucks over there…" he nodded towards a parked oval shaped truck where two more dragons were standing at the back of, helping another woman and her husband onto the vehicle. "…is heading into the city. From there, you'll be directed to somewhere for you and your family to reside,"

Sally nodded again. "Thank you for bringing my daughter back to me,"

"It is alright. Oh, and don't worry. I shall sort out the paperwork on the table,"

Oken walked off back into the crowd, quickly disappearing into it. Sally and Michelle watched him go before Sally breathed a heavy sigh.

"Well, c'mon, Michelle," she said to her daughter, taking the suitcase.

The two walked over towards the oval truck Oken had directed them to. When they reached it, the two dragons helped them on and, after quickly checking to make sure that no one else was heading over to them, jumped into the back of the truck and sat down on the end seats, one of them quickly walking to the wall at the end of the back of the truck and slamming his hand on it before sitting across from his comrade. The truck jolted slightly as it started and began to move onto the bridge, the dragons moving aside to allow the vehicle to pass.

As the truck drove on across the bridge, Michelle and Sally looked out through the entrance into the back of the truck, watching the metallic structure race by and the crowd of dragons and Humans gradually shrink as they got further from it. Another two trucks passed them on their way back to the crowd to bring more people to the city. Several large holes dotted the sides of the tarmac on the bridge, having been struck by blasts during the invaders' attack not long ago, though they must have wanted to keep this intact to use it as a fast route for transport.

"Mommy?" Michelle said to her mother, who looked down at her. "What are they going to do with us?" she asked worryingly.

For a moment, Sally paused, uncertain of what to say to her daughter. Truth was: she did not know fully either on what these dragons were going to do with them. Even though that dragon back there had said they were going to be given a place to stay, was it true? Even if it was, what was to happen to them afterwards? Were they going to be used for experiments or enslaved or eaten or whatever like that last alien Gallaxhar had wanted to do to Humanity? Or would they be spared? If they were, then the question after that was: how long for? A week, a month, a year maybe? It all depended on how long these dragons were going to stay or even if they were going to leave.

"I…" Sally began after a few moments' silence, pausing for a moment longer. "I…don't know where," she admitted sadly. She rested her hand on the back of her daughter's head. "But…but we'll be okay," she reassured her, though her mind thought otherwise. She would just have to pray that they would be okay.

After about ten minutes, buildings began to show up as the truck passed off of the bridge and into San Francisco. Looking outside, those in the truck saw that most of the buildings were damaged, some even completely destroyed. Though, they had only been struck by a few blasts or laser strikes. A few burned cars littered the road of the bridge as they went on and smoke drifted out of several buildings and from below, out of sight of those on the bridge, possibly being either fires from more cars or destroyed tanks or army vehicles or from the lower or ground levels of buildings. Turning into another road that ran towards the centre of the city, those in the back of the truck saw that the Pyramid Building had several large gaping holes in It's sides and part of the top of it was blown off, the rubble of it and the buildings around it scattered over the road.

"My God!" the man of the couple sitting across from Sally, Michelle and Alex gasped, going wide-eyed as he stared at the devastation.

As they turned away from the Pyramid Building into another street, they saw a group of dragons scouring through the rubble of a house that had collapsed. As they passed, Michelle watched as one of the three dragons, who was standing on the top of the pile of rubble, shout down to his comrades on the ground below, searching through the remains of a wardrobe, the clothes that had been inside scattered across the ground, and point into the rubble. The other two dragons rushed up and looked down into the rubble. The dragon that had pointed out whatever it was gave the other two dragons a sad look and said something. Michelle gave her mother a worried look, which her mother returned. By the looks of it, they must have found someone dead under the rubble. Thankfully, though, the truck turned again into another street and the three dragons disappeared from sight.

Finally, after about another minute, the truck began to slow down. It came to a halt outside a small apartment block. The two dragons on the end climbed down, one of them walking around the truck to the driver and talking to him as they walked back to the entrance to the back of the truck.

"Alright, everyone out," the driver of the truck said.

Those in the back of the truck obeyed and got out, stepping down onto the ground, gazing around at the destruction around them. This area had been hit by the attack, but not as hard. Pieces of rubble, though were still scattered about, and an apartment complex nearby had completely collapsed onto a car park, crushing the cars that were parked there. Several more dragons were moving about among the rubble, some of them in groups, others on their own, but all of them just seemed to be searching through what had been the homes of people, maybe for anything valuable or if they were searching for bodies. They just did not know.

"You shall be reside in here now," the driver dragon stated to the group, pointing at a small apartment building that had a large part of It's top left corner missing, having been blown off from a laser strike from a robot that had passed through the area days earlier during the attacks. A few windows had been smashed and small bullet holes lined the building, just as they did with the other buildings around them. "Do not worry. Power and running water shall be back on later tonight," he added, hoping to reassure them.

The driver dragon walked back into the truck and drove off. The man in the couple looked at his wife.

"Not very reassuring are they," he said to her. One of the other dragons glared at him, having overheard him.

"If you can think that you can do better than this, then you can spend the night on the street, munthrak!" he growled, promptly silencing the man. 

Sally and Michelle went to follow the group into the house through the front entrance a little further down the pavement on the building when they heard a voice shout to them.

"Sally! Michelle!" they turned to see a man running up to them. Upon seeing them their eyes lit up with joy.

"Jacob!" Sally almost screamed.

She and her daughter ran towards him and embraced him tightly. Michelle hugged her father as hard as she could, not wanting to let him go. He hugged her back.

"I'm so glad your all okay," he said, a tear running down his face in joy that his family was alive. After a moment, they let go of each other. "What happened to you?" he asked them.

"Excuse me," another voice said. The three looked over towards the building to see one of the dragons walking up to them. He was about half a foot shorter than Jacob and one of his hands had a kind of stump where the thumb had been. His skin was a kind of light red like that of a colouring pencil. "What is going on here?" he demanded in a calm voice, though it was no hard to tell that he was serious. "Are you a relative?"

"Y-yes," Jacob replied, trying to sound like he was not being intimidated. "I'm a husband and a father," he added.

The dragon stared at him, Sally, Michelle and Alex for a moment, taking in the image of the family, before sighing. "Well, come. Unless you want to stay out here," and with that he turned and walked back towards the group. Sally, Michelle and Jacob decided it was best to obey and followed him.

For them, it was the start of a new life here in San Francisco, only this time it was under the rule of extra-terrestrial invaders. 


	20. Separated once again

**Later that day**

**Deep within the forest**

"Damn it, how much further do we have to walk?"

In between the trees of the forest that ran along the west coast of the USA, the monsters trekked. They had to stay near a river as it was wide enough for Insecto, who they had finally found during the night in a large clearing, to walk through. So far, they had been on the move since earlier this morning and had barely had any luck in finding any soldiers or other survivors. As far as they knew, they were the only ones who had made it out of the town alive and they were hopelessly lost and had no idea what they were doing. They just seemed to be walking on in the hopes they would find something or someone and then take it from there, but when would they was the real question.

"Don't worry, Link, we'll find a place soon," Susan reassured him.

"Well, I hope the Doc knows what he's doin'," Link muttered.

Dr Cockroach was at the front of the group with Susan and Link behind him and Bob at the back, talking to Janet, who he was holding in his hand. Walking alongside them with loud footsteps was Insecto. He had had to fold his wings up and keep them on his back so he could easily blend in with the landscape on the ground a bit more if they were spotted by any drones or patrols from the aliens. So far they had been lucky not to run into any of the two yet and they hoped it would stay that way.

"Link, I assure you, I know what I'm doing!" Dr Cockroach snapped back, looking over his shoulder at him with a slight glare. He was getting tired of the others talking about him behind his back, which he could hear as he had advanced hearing, and now it was starting to annoy him. "Just be patient!"

"You said that earlier, doc," Link replied, trying to correct him.

"I know and I've said it again," Dr Cockroach said, looking back ahead of him. "Now will you just please stop moaning for goodness sake!"

Link glared at him and went to reply, but Susan placed a hand on his arm and shook her head, her eyes holding a worried looking within them. They were on the run after all and the last thing they needed now was a fight to break out among them.

"Hey guys!" Bob called out, oozing up to Link and Susan. He held Janet up to them. "Janet's asking if we're nearly there,"

"Well you'll have to ask the leader ahead," Link replied, nodding towards the doctor, who clenched his hand into fists, shaking them slightly in annoyance.

_Damn you, Link! _Dr Cockroach thought angrily.

"Oh, okay," Bob said and oozed up to the doctor. "Hey, doc, Janet wants to know if we'll stop s-"

"Bob, we will stop soon!" Dr Cockroach cut him off. "Just wait, will you!"

He marched on, leaving Bob standing there with a slightly shocked look on his face. The doc getting angry? That was almost unheard of between them. It even shocked the others a little.

On and on they walked, the river turning in a slight bend that led back in the direction of the coast between a few hills. The colours of dusk were beginning to arrive in the sky now to the east, the orange and yellow mixing with the blue. Soon it would be dark. Then, they would be able to move quicker and with greater ease. Until then, they were going to have to stay on the ground.

As they reached the bend in the river, Dr Cockroach looked ahead of them to see a large path cut through the trees and deeper into the forest near the bottom of a small hill. Maybe there at the bottom of the raised ground they could rest until nightfall.

Insectosaurus, suddenly, gave a slight roar, causing the others to stop and look up at him.

"What's that, Insecto?" Link asked.

Insecto roared again and nodded his head towards the way they had just come. The other four looked behind them at the large group of trees about two hundred feet away to see nothing. Puzzled looks came onto the faces of the rest of the group. What was Insectosaurus roaring about?

"What is it, Insecto?" Link asked.

Insectosaurus roared again. "What, you saw something floating?"

"What did he see, Link?" Dr Cockroach asked.

"Insecto said he saw something big and silver and it was floating," Link told him.

"Uh guys," Susan piped up, worry in her voice.

"What is it, Susan?" Dr Cockroach asked and she replied by pointing towards the trees a little of the left of the ones Insecto had been roaring at. The group looked and went wide-eyed at what they saw.

A large silver metallic object was rising up from behind the tree tops. It was about thirty, maybe forty feet tall and had a kind of curved flat top like that of a side of a dome. The rest of the object below the curved top was a kind of rectangular cube-shaped with a large circular hole on the bottom of it. As the object rose higher, the group saw a kind of light green aura droning down from the bottom of it, meaning it must be some kind of craft.

"What the Hell is that thing?" Susan asked, breathless with shock.

"I don't know," Dr Cockroach replied, watching the craft hover over the trees, the aura shining down on them like a lamp. "I think we should just go, now," he added with a hint of fear.

Link scoffed. "No way, doc! We've finally got a chance to get some payback on these aliens! And I'm not passin' it up,"

He went to run towards the object but Dr Cockroach and Susan grabbed him on the arms and held him back, though it was hard as he was easily a lot stronger than they were.

"What the…?" he half shouted in alarm and anger, struggling slightly to get out of their grips. "Lemme go guys!" he growled.

"No, Link," Susan told him. "We can't or you'll lead them to us,"

He glared at them and forced his arms out of their hands. "You're making a big mistake! Your actually gonna pass up this chance for us to get back at 'em?"

"Link, right now, we're not in a position to hit them back," Dr Cockroach snapped at him, trying to make him see sense. Link stopped struggling against the doc and Susan and forcefully pulled his arm out of their grips, glaring dangerously at the doctor.

"What do you mean; we're not in a position to fight back at 'em, doc?" he asked threateningly.

"I mean we-"

That was as far as he got because the next moment, the ground and the air around them seemed to fill with light and burst into fire like a napalm bomb going off.

"Get down!" Link shouted.

The group dived to the ground, covering their heads. Susan looked up slightly from where she lay to see several light green blasts shoot overhead. A loud roar made her look up at Insectosaurus to see him trying to shield his body as best he could from the blasts that were being fired at him.

Dr Cockroach turned his head sideways to look towards the trees to see another light green blast shoot out of there towards Insectosaurus. This one, unfortunately, went underneath his wing and struck him in the foot of one of his legs, making his roar in pain, though, amazingly, he did not stagger backwards of topple over onto his side despite the terrible pain flaring up his legs and through his body like fire.

"Insecto!" Link shouted, raising himself up a little. His large bug friend looked up at him. "Insecto, get outta here!" Insecto roared something back, but Link shook his head. "No! Get outta here! We'll meet up with you later,"

Reluctantly, with sadness lingering in his eyes, Insectosaurus flapped his wings and lifted his enormous bulk into the air, the wind being thrown up from the beating of is wings caused the blasts to halt momentarily, the aliens probably having to take cover to avoid being blown off their feet. The enormous insect monster flew off over the trees and disappeared from sight, the tops of the plants swaying madly but not falling as if they were trying to hold themselves in place.

"Alright, now, whilst we have the chance!" Doctor Cockroach ordered.

Quickly as they could, the others got up from the ground and sped off across a shallow part of the river in front of them. When they reached the other bank, they did not hesitate to see if the aliens were chasing after them, they just ran on, quickly disappearing into the trees and, hopefully, from the aliens.


	21. An argument

**Later that night**

"Doc, it was totally your fault!"

Under the great night sky that was filled with the thousands upon thousands of stars, the monsters sat in a small cave on the side of a large rocky, high part of ground in the middle of the forest near the hills. They had managed to find the place there to hide from the aliens earlier on that evening after narrowly escaping them, but losing Insectosaurus in the process, something that had not gone down well with them, especially with Link, and this was not helped by the fact that they had not been able to find him or that he had been able to find them.

At the moment now, Dr Cockroach and Link were arguing amongst themselves again with Susan and Bob watching innocently from the side of the cave. In the middle of the floor of the cave was a small fire that dimly lit up the cave, the light flickering off the walls and outside. Dr Cockroach and Link were both stood up, glaring dangerously at each other from either side of the cave.

"No it wasn't Link!" Dr Cockroach snapped back. "I don't know why you're trying to blame me when you were whispering about me behind my back about not doing anything right!"

"Well you weren't!"

"Guys, please, stop!" Susan begged getting up and standing between them. "We won't get anywhere by arguing!"

"Look, Susan, we can solve this ourselves," Link told her, shooting her a stern look.

"He is correct there, Susan," Dr Cockroach piped up, making her look at him with an open mouth in shock. "We can solve this ourselves, especially when _he _started this argument as he always does,"

It was then Link shot up from where he was sitting and walked threateningly over to Dr Cockroach, his hands clenched into fists, a look of fury etching across his face. Dr Cockroach just looked up at him, he too beginning to get angry.

"What was that, doc?" Link asked in a dangerous whisper, stopping in front of him, glaring down at the bug head scientist.

Dr Cockroach just sighed and stood up, his height just slightly shorter than Links', but that did not deter him.

"I said you started this and you're just looking for someone to blame," he repeated calmly, though the tone in his voice made sure Link knew who he was talking about. "Yet, you are completely disregarding the fact that you were the one who talking behind my back and made me angry and led us to being attacked."

"Maybe, but if you knew what you were doing, then we wouldn't be in this mess!" Link replied, his voice rising.

"And what am I supposed to do about this predicament, Link! Tell me! What am I to do?"

"You're the smart one, you should know the answer!"

"Oh yes!" Dr Cockroach turned and took a few paces towards the wall. "Leave it all to me! I'll solve our problems! Don't worry, I'll make sure we all get out of this alive!" he said loudly in a sarcastic manner. He turned back to face Link and the other two, who were staring wide-eyed at him and Link with worry, in fear that they could start fighting at any minute. "What do you expect us to do, Link? Go out and start hunting down these invaders one by one until we either win or get killed?"

"It's a lot better than runnin' from 'em!" Link retorted. "And we could be looking for Insectosaurus right now!"

Dr Cockroach smirked "To be honest with you, Link, it was _you _who had been wasting out rime earlier and you're the reason why Insectosaurus is now gone!"

Link's glare deepened and he stepped towards Dr Cockroach. Susan gave Bob a worried look and stepped forward towards Link. Dr Cockroach stood at full height and strode up to him, stopping in front of him, his eyes filled with what he thought was bravery and confidence, though within himself, he knew that he being idiotic in trying to act like a brave man this way, the very same thing applying to Link as well.

"Link, Dr Cockroach, please, don't fight," she begged them.

"Stay outta this, Susan!" they barked at her, making her jump and startling her, even causing her to jump back a few feet, before the two turned back to each other, their anger beginning to boil over.

"Don't you dare accuse me of making us lose Insectosaurus, doc!" Link growled, pointing his finger at him.

"Then do not accuse me of starting all this and not doing anything about it!" Dr Cockroach replied, his voice rising to the point of almost shouting. "Do you think that I have not tried to find a way to hit back at them? I have! And I can safely say that is something you seem to lack, Link, you insignificant fool!"

That must have snapped a nerve because Link suddenly Dr Cockroach and forced him up against the wall of the cave behind him and brought back a fist to punch him. Dr Cockroach did go wide-eyed but tried not to show his fear. Link halted his fist and was ready to swing it forward and easily hit the doctor, who, at this moment in time, no matter if he was friend or not, he wanted to hurt, painfully.

"Link stop!" Susan exclaimed, grabbing his arm. He and Dr Cockroach looked at her, those deep blue eyes held fear within them, not wanting them to fight. "Please, don't fight!" she begged them again, looking at the two of them.

For a moment, Link held his position, looking in anger and shock at her before turning his head back to Dr Cockroach, who glared at him and he returned it. Then, he let go of the doctor and forced his arm out of Susan's grip and stormed off out of the cave, quickly disappearing into the night.

"Hey, Link, where ya going?" Bob asked innocently, oozing up to the entrance of the cave after him.

"Away from here!" came Link's reply from outside. "And especially away from bug head!"

Susan looked back at Doctor Cockroach, who returned with a look of anger and that showed he was fed up with this.

"What?" he asked her.

"Why did you do that?" she asked him, unable to believe this was happening. Two of her friends were arguing! Sure, they had had a few squabbles in the past, but now…now they really wanted to hurt each other. This had not happened before! "Why did you say those thi-"

"Because I'm right, Susan!" he snapped at her and with that, he walked past her back over to a space of the wall next to the fire and crouched down against it, wrapping his arms around him as if trying to embrace himself. Susan sighed and walked over to the entrance of the cave to bring Bob back in and to look for Link.

Dr Cockroach stared angrily at the fire, watching the flames burning away madly over the wood. Just like how he felt at the moment about Link.

"Because I'm right," he muttered to himself again, though this time in a lower voice and he crouched into a ball and closed his eyes, letting sleep carry him into uncertainty.


	22. Preparing an attack

**The next day**

**July 29****th**

If there was one thing the monsters did not like, it was being separated, but as they walked on and on down the lonely road that went right through the forest, several abandoned cars strewn about, some with branches and leaves on them from having fallen by advancing ships from the invaders, they gradually realised now that the argument Link and Doctor Cockroach had had last night was the final straw in making the half ape/half fish hybrid leave them. At first they had hoped he was just going to cool down, but when they woke up this morning they saw that they were alone. He had not come back and where he was now, they did not know. He was probably looking for Insectosaurus but…who was to say that he was dead or alive? For all they knew he could have been hunted down and killed and Link…well, he could have been captured by the invaders. They did tell themselves repeatedly though that their two missing friends were both tough fighters and they would not give up easily, but last time when they had faced Gallaxhar and his army of clones on his ship, they had mostly fled without a fight. This time…these creatures might be the exact opposite. Though they had not actually seen them in person yet, for the aliens to do this well and advance this far across the planet and drive back, they had a feeling they would do soon.

The three walked down the road in almost complete silence, the only one talking was Bob, who was oozing along the side of the road, searching through the bushes and the trees, calling: "Link!", "Insectosaurus!" every now and then and always muttering afterwards "Where are they?" before moving on to look somewhere else for them.

Susan, who was in her normal size, and Dr Cockroach, however, had barely spoken to each other since they left the cave this morning. It was as if they were restricted to talking to each other by what was happening and even though they wanted to talk to each other to try and make the other feel better, the events of last night and the current situation they were in now just seemed to act as some kind of invisible barrier between them and they just walked on and on down the road, hoping that they would find either one, or both of their missing friends, but with the way things were going at the moment, they did not want to get their hopes up too high.

"Hey guys!" Bob said, oozing up to them. "Have you seen Link or Insecto?" he asked innocently.

Dr Cockroach sighed through gritted teeth frustratingly. "No, Bob," he replied. "We haven't,"

"Oh, well, I'll look over there with Janet," He told them, and he oozed off in front of them to the other side of the road and began searching through the trees for his two friends.

Susan and Dr Cockroach watched him look hopelessly for them. He was just so incapable of believing they were gone, something which annoyed them, but…also saddened them because they kind of felt the same way. They were worried for their friends and they had no idea where they were or if they could help them if they were hurt. They just felt…so…so useless and lonely now. This was, after all, the first time they had been forced back and on the run with Humanity.

Susan sighed. "Why can't he just stop!" she whined. "Why won't we just tell him we can't find Link and Insectosaurus?"

"There's no point in telling him that," Dr Cockroach told her lowly, as if annoyed at her not being able to understand this situation as well. "He'll just forget and start looking again!"

He walked on a little faster ahead of her, Susan watching him go with a shocked look. She had never heard him speak that way, especially to her. She did begin to feel a little worried. What if this was to be the start of another breakup in the group? If it was then…then who would be the next tone to leave and try and strike it out alone?

"Link!" Bob called from nearby, snapping Susan out of her staring and causing her to look at him. His head poked out of a bush, part of being absorbed and disintegrated by him. "Still haven't found him," he said to Susan. "Janet's had no luck either," he added, holding up the dessert.

Susan sighed. "Well, come on, Bob," she said to him. "Take a break and we'll try and find them later,"

"Okay," he replied, oozing out and following alongside her as they walked down the road after Dr Cockroach, who just seemed to be lost in his own thoughts and concentrating on how they were going to get out of this mess.

But for once though…for once he was finding it hard to figure out an answer to this predicament. Before, he could solve virtually any problem within the blink of an eye. He could invent practically anything and use it for anything. Now, however, all of that just seemed completely useless. He had no laboratory to work from, nothing to use effectively as a way to get through this barrier of being on the run and defeat these invaders. He just felt so…inconsiderate…useless…a waste of space on Earth now. There was nothing neither or, quite frankly, any of his friends could do.

As he walked on, Susan and Bob began to worry about him. Bob looked at the dessert in his hand, which shook slightly as he moved. He nodded at it.

"Alright Janet, I'll ask," he said to it and he turned to look at Susan. "Hey, Susan. Janet wants to know what's wrong with doc," he said to her.

Susan paused for a moment as if hesitant to reply to him before she did speak. "I'm not sure I even know myself, Bob," she told him.

"Well, there's gotta be something wrong with him," Bob blurted out loudly.

"There's nothing wrong with me!" Dr Cockroach snapped, shooting round to glare at them, stopping them where they were. He stormed over to them. "I heard you two talking about me through my advanced hearing, and I'm telling you now: I'm fine! Okay?"

They nodded slightly, wide-eyed. They had never seen the doc so angry like this before. He was not the type of person who would get angry so easily.

"Good," he said. "Now, can we go on without muttering about each other and try and find a way out of this me-"

Suddenly, the sound of snapping branches filled the air, causing them to look towards the trees to their left, their eyes going as wide as dinner plates in fear. Susan gasped quietly, Doctor Cockroach bit his tongue tightly, Bob hid Janet behind him, all of them fearing what the noise from the undergrowth was.

Then, a group came out and the three breathed a sigh of relief. It was a group of soldiers, about six of them. One of them, a tall blonde haired man of about thirty, looked relieved when he saw the three.

"Guys!" he exclaimed, rushing over to them. "The monsters! Thank God we found you!"

The other soldiers rushed over to them. "Wondered what the noise was," a middle height black soldier of about twenty five said.

"What's happened?" Doctor Cockroach asked them. "Are there any more of you?"

The blonde hired soldier shook his head. "No, well…there were," he replied. "Last night, us…" he indicated to the rest of the group. "…were attacked in a small camp we set up. We knew it was the invaders because they were firing lasers and blasts at us, but we didn't see 'em. Anyway, we've been legging it for most of the morning until we found you guys," he concluded.

Doctor Cockroach nodded. So they were not the only ones that were on the run and had suffered badly. That did offer some comfort he had to admit as he was reminded that he, Susan and Bob were not the only ones suffering from this invasion but these soldiers were as hopelessly lost as they were, both on where exactly it was they were going and what they were to do now they were on the run.

"Where were you guys headed?" Susan asked them.

"Well…we don't know," the blonde haired soldier admitted. "We were just hoping we'd find another convoy or something and join up with them. Since we're with you guys we may as…" he trailed off, realising something about them. "Where's the rest of you guys?" he asked. "I swear there's a giant butterfly and some half ape/half fish hybrid thing,"

"There is but they're gone," Bob piped up, causing Dr Cockroach to shoot him a dark look.

The soldiers gave each other nervous glances. Like the three monsters in front of them, they feared what had happened to the two missing monsters.

"Anyway, what do you think we should do now?" Susan asked them, trying to draw them away from their present thoughts on Link and Insectosaurus.

"Well…" the blonde haired soldier replied. "We may as well go on and try and find a town or another convoy and join u-"

"Guys! Look!" a short black haired soldier of about nineteen suddenly exclaimed, pointing up at the sky.

The rest of the group looked at where he was pointing and went wide-eyed at what they saw.

"Quick, get off the road!" Dr Cockroach exclaimed.

The group obeyed and rushed for cover, diving into the bushes or behind trees or in a small ditch by the side of the road. Susan, who had hidden in a bush on the right side of the road with one of the soldiers, looked up out of a small gap between the leaves to see what it was the soldier had pointed at.

What it was that had caused them to panic and hide was a short and fat spire shaped craft. It was about sixty feet long and almost the same in height. Three large circular holes with a neon green glow coming out of them were on the back of the craft, which was a large rectangular shape. A kind of half circular window, most likely the bridge, was on the top of the ship near the front and below that were two small long thin silos, one on either side of the window. The entire craft was a kind of chrome colour and at the bottom of the front of the ship, where the point was, a large dome stuck out underneath it.

Susan watched as the enormous craft descended from the sky, looking as if it was heading directly for them. Then, when it was about a hundred feet above the tree tops, it turned right and flew over them, disappearing from sight.

After about a minute, the group slowly emerged from their cover, all staring uneasily at the sky in fear that the craft would come back or that more of them were coming.

"What do you guys think that was?" the black soldier asked.

"My guess: a drop ship," Dr Cockroach answered. "We better go before it comes back,"

"No, wait!" the blonde haired soldier piped up. "If It's a drop ship, then we can surprise it when it drops troops,"

The others stared at him, a little shocked by what he was saying. However, some of them did mentally admit, it did sound like a good idea. Yes, it had to be! if it was dropping off troops, then they could easily attack it and surprise the aliens when they came off it.

"What, you want us to attack it?" one of the other soldiers, a middle height brown haired man of about twenty six, asked.

"Yeah, don't you guys see?" the blonde haired soldier replied. "We can do it! I mean, we got the doc here, Susan who can grow to her giant height, Bob with his…uh, power to absorb and spit things out and we've got guns. We're ready. They won't be! This is a perfect opportunity to strike back at 'em!"

For a moment, the group looked at one another again. They were divided over what to do. Some of them did agree with the leading soldier. This was a perfect opportunity to strike back at the aliens and let them know that invading Earth was a big mistake, but the rest, notably the doctor, thought it was a suicide idea and if they went ahead with it, they were likely to be killed.

"Well I'm going," the brown haired soldier piped up, cocking his weapon.

"Same here," Bob piped up unknowingly. "And Janet," he added, holding her up.

"Alright, anyone else?" the blond haired soldier inquired.

Susan and Dr Cockroach looked at each other a little worryingly. Bob had decided to go with them. Even though they did not want to, they had to go with them to make sure neither he nor the soldiers would get killed, especially Bob. The last thing they needed was for someone out of their group to get captured or worse, killed.

Dr Cockroach sighed. "Alright, me and Susan will come as well," he said.

The blonde haired soldier nodded. "Alright, then let's go," he said.

With that, the group ran off into the trees to the right of the road in the direction of the alien drop ship. It was going to be a suicide mission, but there was a chance it could succeed.

That was providing nothing went wrong.


	23. A disastrous battle

**Ten minutes later**

Moving through the trees and trying to keep quiet because of the rustling of leaves and bushes when you walked past them was very difficult, and it was not helped by the size of the group. Altogether now, there were eight of them, and with Bob constantly oozing over to ask what it was they were doing and where they were going every few minutes, Dr Cockroach was surprised they had not been seen by these aliens. He was thankful though that they had not been…yet. With what they were doing, their silence was bound to end in a few minutes.

"Hey doc," Bob whispered, oozing past one of the soldier, almost knocking him over, to Dr Cockroach. "What are we doing again?" he asked.

Dr Cockroach sighed. "Bob, I've told you about five times already," he replied frustratingly. "We're going to surprise attack that ship we saw pass by earlier,"

"O-o-o-o-oh!" Bob recognized. "Okay," he oozed off back to where he had been just a moment ago happily and moved on with the group as if nothing happened.

Dr Cockroach shook his head in disbelief at his blob friend. How he was able to forget completely about all this was beyond him. Why did he not have a brain? Was he that incompetent?

Upon thinking those thoughts, he sighed to himself. He should not blame Bob for the way he was. it was how he had been created and quite frankly, they could not do much about it anyway. If they tried to put anything inside him, it would be eaten away and disintegrated. Besides, he had been with Bob for so long now that changing him into a normal thinking person…it…it would just be completely boring and pointless. It would be a change that Dr Cockroach, and quite frankly everyone else, would not be able to enjoy or get used to easily.

Just then, as they neared a small thinning part of the forest, the sound of loud thuds and shouting and loud talking filled the air.

"Quick, everyone down!" the blonde soldier hissed, moving his hand towards the ground several times quickly.

The group obeyed and knelt down to the ground, staying completely like ghosts, waiting to see if anything would happen. The blonde haired soldier, keeping low, moved up from where he was crouched towards a line of bushes on the edge of the forest ahead of them. When he got to them, he brushed aside the branches and the leaves with his hand and looked through into a huge field.

There, in the middle of the field, about one hundred feet from him, was the parked spire-like ship they had seen earlier. Three large mechanical needle-pointed-like legs were sticking out of the bottom of the ship and touched down on the ground, holding it up. A large kind of ramp was sticking out of a small hole in the side of the ship down to the ground and several large dragon-like figures were walking up and down it. Scattered about on the grass around the ship were several large metallic crates with several more dragons around them, some entering them through large holes on the sides, other standing guard or talking to others. By the looks of it, this was to be a command post for more dragons when they would land later. The soldier had seen this many times before in training and on his first two tours of duty in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban. It was all very similar to how Humans would fight each other, the only difference this time was that it was Humans against an extra-terrestrial race.

Keeping as quiet as he could, he withdrew from the bushes and moved back over to the group, signalling them to come around him.

"Alright," he explained. "Here's what we've got. The ship's parked in the middle of the field and there are several large mechanical crates around it with…God knows what inside them. There are about twenty dragons altogether scattered about in the field. My guess here is that they're gonna be using this part of the forest as a command centre for further operations in the area," he concluded.

"So how do we take 'em out?" the brown haired soldier asked.

"Easy, there are eight of us, so we'll separate into four groups of two," the blonde haired soldier replied. "Pick who you want to go with and get into a firing position behind the bushes. Keep quiet and wait for my command to fire on 'em. We'll ambush the bastards and cut 'em down,"

"Give 'em a warm Earth greeting," the black soldier joked.

"You said it," the blonde haired soldier commented agreeably. "Alright, get going, and remember, keep quiet and stay low,"

The others nodded and separated into groups. However, changes had to be made and there had to be three groups, one group of two and two of three as Dr Cockroach quickly told the blonde haired soldier that he and Susan best keep an eye on Bob in case he wondered off or accidentally revealed their position to the aliens. The soldier agreed and told the brown haired soldier to join him and the black soldier in one group. Dr Cockroach, Susan and Bob moved over to a large bush a little to the right of where the blonde haired soldier had been when he looked through into the clearing, which was where he and his group were.

"Okay my dear, get ready to take off your ring," he whispered to her.

"Right, doc," she replied and placed her fingers on it, ready to pull it off and charge out there at her gigantic size to attack the aliens.

And Bob," Dr Cockroach turned to his blob friend. "Please, keep quiet and do not move until we say,"

"You got it, doc," Bob replied, nodding confidently.

A heavy feeling of tenseness filled the air and seemed to grasp the group as they waited for the others to get ready. With them formed in a kind of crescent formation, it would be easy for them to fire on the unsuspecting dragons, but that was only if they were quiet. Dr Cockroach and Susan looked over at the blonde haired soldier, who looked both left and right and nodded at the two groups, who both nodded back, telling him they were ready to fire.

"Alright, get ready, Bob," Susan whispered to him.

He nodded and whispered to the dessert. "You may wanna cover your eyes, Janet. This could get ug-"

Suddenly, he was put off when he saw a small fly shoot out in front of him and he was amazed at how it was flying up and down and back and forth. He smiled in delight, his child-ness taking over and he raised his hand to try and catch it, but failed.

"Hey, come back, little guy!" he said quietly, suddenly moving away from Dr Cockroach and Susan, who were taken by surprise at his sudden movement.

"Bob, what are you doing?" Susan hissed, her eyes going wide, but he did not seem to hear her.

"Hey c'mon, I won't hurt ya," he said, his voice now suddenly going back to It's normal loud and cheery self as he jumped up to try and catch the fly but missed again and only frightened it and caused it to start shooting out towards the bushes. Seeing this, Dr Cockroach's eyes, along with about the rest of the squad near them, went wide.

"Oh no!" he whispered with fear.

Out in the field, one of the dragons, who was tall and had pale dark red skin and a long silver tubed weapon slung over his shoulder, emerged from one of the boxes. Another dragon, who was about the same height as him but had darker red skin approached from another metallic box a few metres away behind him.

"_Is the vehicle ready for unloading?" _the dark red dragon asked as he reached the pale red dragon, who nodded.

_"As soon as we have set up camp here, we shall unload it and begin advancing into the forests," _he replied, looking over at the trees. _"Our soldiers who attacked an enemy camp last night said they managed to escape and we've had reports of a strange group of creatures amongst the Humans here as well,"_

_"If we run into them, we shall kill them," _the dark red dragon said, causing the pale red dragon to look at him. _"We must keep the cities safe from any who try to stir up revolts,"_

The pale red dragon nodded and went to reply when the sound of rustling filled their ears. The two looked over to a line of bushes to see them shift about madly as if they were alive. They looked at each other questionably. What was making them do that?

Then, their question was answered when a large light blue coloured blob emerged from the bushes. The two dragons' eyes went wide as they watched this creature jump and try and catch something, seemingly unaware of where he was.

Then, the bushes shifted and swayed again and this time a woman with silver hair and a man with blonde hair, both dressed in kind of military-like uniforms, emerged and tried to grab Bob, only to stop and look over at the field, directly into the eyes of the two dragons, in realisation of what they had just done.

Suddenly, the pale red dragon shot round, cupped his hands around his mouth and screamed: _"SHOKA MUTINAR! SHOKA MUTINAR!" Enemy soldiers! _His screaming drew the attention of the other dragons, who quickly saw what was going on. The dark red dragon whipped out his gun.

_"REI ILONA!" _he yelled. _Fire on them _and he pulled the trigger on his weapon.

Susan and the soldier pulled Bob back into the bushes and onto the ground as the forest around them seem to explode with blast fire. Bark was launched off the sides of trees like shrapnel. Branches fell from the trees, leaves were burned to a crisp and some blasts landed near the soldier, who returned fire on the dragons, who had the cover of the large metallic crates and dived behind them.

Dr Cockroach, throwing himself to the ground to avoid a blast that zoomed over his head and hit a tree, crawled over to Susan and Bob, a furious look in his eyes.

"Well done, Bob!" he shouted over the noise of the blast fire. "Just brilliant!"

"What, what I do?" he asked innocently, frightened of what was going on.

The blond haired soldier fired a burst of ammo from his weapon at the dragons and ducked down to reload. Suddenly, a blast struck him the shoulder, burning right through his uniform and onto his skin. The soldier cried out and fell to the ground, screaming in pain.

"Quick, get him away from the line!" the brown haired soldier shouted as he fired at the aliens. Just then, a blast struck him in the forehead and he fell backwards onto the ground, dead.

Susan grabbed the blonde haired soldier and pulled him back towards her. Just as she did, another blast tore through the bushes and struck the ground between her and the soldier, remarkably not hitting them, but scaring her enough to make her scream and jump backwards in surprise. Dr Cockroach crawled over to the soldier and pushed down hard on the wound, making him cry out in pain.

"ARGH! STOP IT!" he yelled in pain.

"I'm sorry, but It's to stop you from bleeding out," the bug headed doctor replied, also having to shout over the noise of the battle.

Further down, the other two soldiers began to move back away from the bushes, still firing at they did, hoping it would pin down the aliens long enough for them to make a getaway. However, another blast struck one of the soldiers in the chest, killing him instantly. His buddy grabbed his body but, upon realising his friend was gone; let it drop to the ground.

"Alright, we're pulling outta here!" the black soldier shouted. He and the other soldier, who fired several shots as he went, moved over to the others. "You guys go, we'll take care of him," the soldier said to the group.

Dr Cockroach looked up at him with shock filled eyes, unable to believe what he was hearing. "What! No, you'll get killed!"

The brown haired soldier fired another burst of ammo at the aliens and quickly reloaded: "Look, you guys are needed more than ever in this war! Go! Don't worry, we'll get him outta here!"

The blonde haired soldier grunted, clenching his teeth together as tightly as he could to try and conceal the pain flaring up and down his body.

"He's right, doc. You guys go!"

"But what about you?" Susan asked him.

"Don't worry…I…I can g-get up!" he managed to sit up but it was obvious from the look on his face that the wound on his shoulder was still great. "Go! Now! We'll be okay!" he insisted.

Dr Cockroach and Susan looked at each other sorrowfully. They could not believe that these soldiers were sacrificing themselves to save them. Susan looked like she wanted to protest, but shouting from the clearing made her mind think it was best to listen to the soldiers and beat a hasty retreat.

"Go, we'll be fine," the black soldier reassured them, though his voice was also unsure of what their fate would be, though with them being soldiers, he had an obvious feeling of what it would be.

Dr Cockroach sighed and looked at the other two. "Alright, let's go," he said.

Reluctantly, the other two agreed and the three monsters ran off back the way they had come. Behind them, the brown haired soldier continued to fire on the aliens whilst the black soldier knelt down to tend to the wound of the blonde haired soldier.


	24. One more down

**Later that night**

Things had not gone well since the three had fled from the clearing in the forest earlier on in the day. After having to leave the three remaining soldiers at the hands of the aliens, a fate that was obvious to them of what it was, several drones had arrived in the area, probably having been called in by the aliens at the clearing, and bombed the forest with several blasts. The three had only just managed to escape being blown apart at one point when a blast landed almost right next to them. Luckily, a tree had shielded them and taken most of the blast. After their near death experience, they had made a hasty retreat.

Now, as the night had settled in over the world, they had found another cave in the side of a large rock hill in the middle of the forest near the road, and things were not going well.

"For goodness sake, Bob, it was all your fault!"

Doctor Cockroach was yelling at Bob for having caused the dilemma earlier on. Susan was trying to calm the doctor down but her pleas were falling on deaf ears, which worried her greatly because she did not want another of their friends to leave and split the group up even more.

"Doc, what did I do?" Bob asked innocently in a worried voice, not knowing why his friend was angry with him, which only infuriated Dr Cockroach even more.

"Oh!" he growled, clenching his fists tightly and shaking them so hard that they looked like they were about to fall off. "Are you that incompetent you idiot blob!" he barked at his blob friend, or who had been his friend in his mind at this moment in time. "My God, no wonder you always seem to cause trouble for us!"

"Don't say that about him, doc!" Susan pleaded, walking over to him from the side of the cave and resting a hand on his shoulder, but he pushed it off him.

"Don't get involved in this, Susan," he said to her sternly, which made her glare at him.

"Look, don't try and tell me what to do, doc!" she said to him. "I'm trying to stop you from hurting anyone else and breaking up the group even more!"

"Oh, okay," he turned and walked a few paces from her, the anger burning madly like an inferno inside him. He looked back at Susan. "I take it this entire split is my fault then?" he asked her in a sarcastic manner.

"I dunno," she replied, folding her arms. "It could be. After all, you did upset Link,"

Dr Cockroach glared at her. "Oh, so I upset Link, yet you are completely inconsiderate of the fact that he acted like I should know a way out of this mess when _I _am just as lost as you all!"

"Guys, stop! Your scaring Janet!" Bob pleaded, oozing over to them and holding up the dessert.

By this point, Dr Cockroach had really had enough. He looked angrily at Bob and the dessert he was holding in his hand, an urge building up inside him like a volcano preparing to erupt, one that he never felt before or never hoped he would do.

He took a deep breath to calm down. "Bob, will you please get rid of that thing!" he snapped. "It's useless to you and us right now!"

Bob gasped, looking taken aback as if the doc had said something offensive to him, which, in a way, he had.

"Don't say that about her!" he told the doc. "Don't worry, he doesn't mean it, Janet!" he told the dessert.

"See, doc?" Susan pointed out to him. "Your attitude had really affected everyone here!"

"And so has yours!" he barked back, pointing at her.

"Don't point your finger at me!"

"Then don't blame me for all the bad luck we've suffered!"

Susan growled. "You're lucky we're inside at the moment, otherwise I'd really like to grow to my giant size and grab you and…and…and hit you!"

"Guys, Janet want you to stop, please," Bob piped up with a hint of worry, but also hope, in his voice, holding up the dessert.

Suddenly, Dr Cockroach lost it. "Will you get that thing out of here!" he shouted and with one flick of his arm, he knocked the dessert out of Bob's hand. It soared through the air to the side of the cave and splatted against the rock wall. The plat smashed as it hit the ground, the dessert sliding down the side of it.

Bob gasped, horrified, his single eye going as wide as Susan and Dr Cockroach had seen it go. He oozed over to the remains of what had been what he considered to be his lover and took a handful of it in him, staring with disbelief at it. Susan looked at him with worried eyes but Dr Cockroach turned away and stormed over to the wall, leaning against it, the anger from inside filtering out of him, only to begin to be replaced by a hint of guilt.

"Bob?" Susan said, walking over to him and placing a hand on his head.

He did not reply but she could tell he was upset because she saw his hand clench into a fist, his eyeball close and she heard him try to choke back a few tears. Both of them were in complete disbelief that their friend could do something like this. This was the doc! He was not someone who would upset people, but now…now that side of him just seemed to have left him and been replaced with another, darker side of him.

All of a sudden, Bob oozed off towards the cave entrance as quick as he could and out into the night, quickly disappearing from sight. Susan watched him go with wide-eyes, her mouth slightly open, her mind unable to comprehend that he was running off.

"You see what you've done, doc?" she shouted at him. He looked up at her with guilt filled eyes to see them brimming with tears, something that really did get him right in the heart like a dagger, but before he could say anything, she rushed out after Bob into the night.

"Bob!" he heard her call, but he did not hear a reply. "Bob, where are you?" he heard her shout again.

Dr Cockroach looked over at the ground on the other side of the cave, watching the first fragments of the dessert stop sliding down it as they hit the ground. Guilt filled him like water filling up a tank. He could not believe it. He had made Bob run off, just like what had happened to Link. What if…what if Susan was right? What if he was driving everybody off? What if all of them splitting up was all his fault?

Finally giving into the guilt, he sank down to the ground, resting his back against the wall behind him and bringing his legs up to his chest, embracing them tightly. He rested his head on them and silently began to cry.


	25. Life in an occupied city

**Nine days later**

**August 7****th**

August 7th. It was now around two weeks since the war against the invaders began and even though Humanity had been driven from the cities, It's army virtually wiped out, millions made refugees and the invaders now in control of the skies and beginning to occupy the ground, the war still went on. Though it was not a case of large scale battle for the moment, some fighting was still taking place.

Most notable locations were in cities that were not really major on the global status like, Kampala, Freetown, Lima, Munich, Sarajevo, Timbuktu and Pusan. Washington D.C, probably the only city on the list that was considered a major population centre, had held out for a few days but the President, faced with the capital surrounded completely, the people running out of resources, a deteriorating army and finally a demand from the invaders to surrender or they would continue the attack, had decided to surrender the city and he cursed himself for doing so, not fully because they had lost but he knew that they would take revenge against the city.

Across the world, the few remaining cities (mostly those mentioned above) were continuing to hold out thanks to the terrain of where they had been built and that not as many of the invaders had come to them. Yet, it was only a matter of time until they were overrun and virtually all organized resistance against the invaders would collapse, leaving those remaining to flee into…well, wherever they could be it the mountains, forests, deserts, outback's, rainforests or valleys or just wherever they could go in order to hide from the invaders.

As for the cities that the invaders had managed to capture, and there were plenty of them, along with the land surrounding these cities, the inhabitants that either remained there or had been taken there by the invaders feared a gruesome and violent tyrant-like rule under these invaders, one which they feared would be like that of many past tyrants in Human history.

**San Francisco**

The remains of San Francisco were made up of about half rubble and half still standing structures. However, the city, surprisingly, did have running water and electricity through two large plants that the aliens had built on the side of the city near the bay over the remains of where several large dock buildings had once stood and even more surprising was that the invaders were planting rooftop gardens and using most of the parks and gardens of houses and even small front flower pots to grow food, something which was completely unexpected of the people in the city that their invaders, who had mercilessly killed thousands across the Earth, destroyed entire cities and wiped out the armies that had come to face them in a matter of days, were now looking after them as if they were their own people.

What was even more surprising to the people in San Francisco was that no reprisal had been taken, at least not here in the city, but nevertheless such an act really did shock them. I mean, here they were under the complete rule of extra-terrestrials who had virtually destroyed Humanity and now all of a sudden, they were actually _caring _for them and _feeding_ them as if they were friends or guests. It was completely the exact opposite of what they expected the treatment to be like.

Near the centre of San Francisco, just a few streets down from the Transamerica Pyramid Building, which had been destroyed from about the middle up, the remains now either scattered across the ground around it or were lodged into the buildings that surrounded it, Jacob leaned against the remains of what had been the side of a house, resting for a moment. His white top was dusty, as were his jeans, from where he had been helping in cleaning away the rubble. At the moment, there were a few groups of people working around the city, some on their own and others with the aliens. Even here with Jacob, there was one of the aliens here, who was somewhere on the second floor of the remains of this house at the moment, searching through it for anything or anyone. He had been here for the last few hours with his daughter and the alien, who had pale red skin and who Michelle knew, had come over to help. At the moment, they were somewhere up on the second floor, which Jacob was reluctant about doing but the dragon had reassured him he would keep his daughter safe.

To Jacob, and very likely everyone else, it was amazing to see these two sworn enemies working together despite all that had happened over the past few weeks. Maybe the aliens just did not have it in them to begin slaughtering or driving the Humans into slavery or food or kicking them out to fend for themselves, or maybe they had been given orders not to. Maybe they might be needed for something else, but what exactly he could not think of an answer, maybe it was best if he did not in case he did not like it.

"Daddy, are you okay?"

Jacob looked behind him to see his daughter Michelle climbing down from the rubble towards the street at the bottom. Her clothes, a top and jeans like him, along with her hair, were dusty as well.

"Oh yeah I'm fine, sweetie," he replied. "You alright getting down from there?"

She nodded and placed one foot down on top of a wooden door and then the other and jumped down from there onto the ground.

"D'you know where mommy is?" she asked him.

"I think she went home, or back to the home we're in now, with your brother," he answered. "I can take you back there if you want," he offered.

"No, It's okay," she declined.

A slight crash from the top of the rubble made them turn their heads to look up at a large hole on the remains of a floor. The pale red dragon emerged with a grunt as he carried out a small drawer. Dust was sprayed about in the air as he walked and he coughed and retched, spitting onto the floor. With a relieved breath, he threw it off the side of the floor and the drawer landed with a crash onto the pavement on the rubble.

"Was it okay up there?" Jacob asked Michelle. She nodded.

"Yeah, we found a few toys and a photo album, but that's about it daddy," she replied.

"Oh good,"

"Ah!" the pale red dragon gasped a little as he wiped his eyes and sniffed a few times as he climbed down the pile of rubble to the pavement at the bottom. The dust was getting into his eyes and, with another retch, which Jacob and his daughter grimaced at, he spat onto what was left of what had been a bookcase. "Sorry," he said as he looked up and saw the displeased looks on the faces of the two.

"It's okay," Jacob replied.

"Hey guys!" another voice called.

The three looked down the road to see another man and a woman approaching them. It was Carl and Wendy. They had been here for the last few days since the city had been taken and had run into Jacob and his family a few days ago now, having been overjoyed to see that there was someone here they knew and had survived the invasion. They feared for their daughter though, not knowing whether she was okay or not and wanted to be with her, but they knew as well that trying to escape was impossible. The bridges were always guarded. Virtually all the boats in San Francisco harbour had been destroyed and the aliens were starting to set up fortifications on the islands in the bay as well as on the other side. The city was now a fortress and getting out was going to difficult, and eventually impossible.

"Hey Carl, Wendy!" he greeted, getting up, shaking Carl's hand and pulling Wendy into a hug. "It's good to see you two," he said as he released Wendy.

"Same with you," Wendy replied. "Hey Michelle, how are you?" she asked his daughter.

"I'm fine," she replied.

The sound of rubble falling down to the pavement made the group look up to see the pale red dragon climbing down towards the ground. He raised a hand in greeting to Wendy and Carl and they, nervously, returned it with small and slightly scared smiles. Jacob saw this and, realising they were uncomfortable here, decided it was best to make them go.

"Um, say Wendy, Carl, could you two um…take Michelle back to the apartment?" he asked.

"Oh, uh, sure," Wendy replied. She took Michelle's hand. "C'mon, Michelle, let's go see your mother,"

"Okay," she replied, but looked over her shoulder to see her father was not following her. "Wait, daddy, aren't you coming?" she asked.

"Oh, uh no, sweetie," he replied. "I've got to…uh…sort out a few things here with the rubble. I-I'll join you later,"

"Um, okay," she did not sound convinced but said nothing more and walked off across the road with Wendy. Carl followed them but gave Jacob a slight nod to say goodbye, and possibly even thanks, as he walked by. Jacob returned it and watched the three walk down to the end of the road and turn the corner and walk out of sight.

"They were nervous weren't they?" the dragon from behind him asked.

Jacob turned to face him, staring into his red eyes for a moment, knowing that he was telling the truth, but he shook his head.

"No, of course they weren't," he insisted, lying.

The dragon gave him a _"Oh really," _look, not falling for Jacob's lie. He knew very well when someone was nervous about being in his presence. He had witnessed it many times before in the past, especially when he was a lot younger. To be honest, he half expected these Humans to feel intimidated by him. After all, he was about six foot eight, had large muscles and looked like a creature of aggression and danger to these people, so who would not feel intimidated by someone as big as him? Him being here with Jacob was a perfect example. The Human was about 6ft tall, not really a great difference compared to his own 6ft 8 height but big enough with the rest of his appearance to make anyone feel intimidated. 

Jacob sighed. "Alright," he admitted. "Yeah, they…they were intimidated by you," he said.

The dragon nodded slightly. "I'm not surprised," he replied. "I'm not as dangerous as I look," he explained to Jacob. "I helped your daughter and your wife and baby when they arrived here so…" he shrugged. "Cannot be completely harmless,"

Jacob nodded slightly in agreement. "True," he agreed. Silence fell between them for a moment before Jacob felt the need to introduce himself to this dragon. He held up his hand to him. "My name's Jacob," he said.

The dragon looked at him for a moment as if shocked by what he was doing, which he was, but took his hand and shook it.

"Oken," he replied. The two released their hands.

"So…Oken, what is it that made you come here? Why are you here?" he asked.

Oken shrugged slightly. "Will to survive mostly," he answered.

"But is there any reason though? I mean, is it water, oil, coal? Or is it us?"

"You?" Oken turned his head, looking questionably with confusion as Jacob.

He nodded. "Yeah, I mean, are you using us for slaves or food or to…I dunno, help rebuild your race or for experiments?"

Oken went to reply when the sound of rumbling filled the air. The two looked down the road, opposite to where Wendy and Carl had gone with Michelle, to see a large oval shaped truck coming towards them. This one was larger than the usual oval trucks that had been used here and had four wheels on it rather than three. The back of this truck was also a rectangular shape and the entire thing had an open top, allowing anyone it was driving by to see the driver and passenger seats at the front along with the seats along the side like those inside a normal army truck. Mounted behind the driver and passenger seats was a tall chrome coloured, curved, metallic stick with a cylindrical object about three feet long, purple coloured on the top half and silver on the bottom and a small trigger on the bottom near the back of it. A small silo-like hole was on the front, obviously meaning this was a mounted gun. Sticking out of either side of the gun, directly above the trigger, were two small half circular, purple coloured objects with tiny crescent shaped, silver objects no bigger than half the size of the fingernail on a Human's smallest finger, attached to it. Behind this one were about ten more.

However, it was who was in these trucks that alarmed the two. They were more dragons and did have the all different shades of red coloured skin, but they had these kind of circular, medal-like objects attached to the skin about half-way above one of their forearms. These dragons also looked more aggressive and dangerous than the usual dragons, not that they looked anymore different than the original ones already in the city. There were about sixteen to a truck, including one mounting the turret and two in the front seats. As they drove past, some of them made eye contact with the two standing by the road, glaring at them. Jacob felt a little nervous about this, especially as they drove on to the end of the road and turned left at the corner, thankfully being opposite to the way Michelle, Carl and Wendy had gone, and drove off in the direction of the Pyramid Building.

It was when the fourth truck passed them that Jacob looked up at Oken. To his surprise, he saw him glaring dangerously at those in the trucks and he probably realised that the dragons in the trucks were glaring mostly at him, though some probably also directed at himself as well.

When the trucks passed, Jacob seeing conversation break out among those on board the last one, no doubt about the two, Oken growled.

"Oh joy!" he said through gritted teeth. "I didn't expect them to be here!" he added.

"Who are they?" Jacob asked. Oken looked at him and replied with one word.

"Sankiar," 


	26. The Sankiar

**Several minutes later**

Within the new top levels of the Pyramid Building, which were now located about half-way up as the rest had been destroyed or removed by the dragons, the door to a large cleared office room opened and three tall and heavily built dragons walked in. These three dragons looked fierce and aggressive and they were. On their arms were circular medal-like objects that had literally been fused onto the skin of their forearms. The two dragons standing behind the lead dragon had light green medal-like objects on their arms and the lead dragon had a dark blue medal-like object on his forearm, signalling he was the leader. What these medal-like objects are exactly are rank identifiers and each held a rank to the dragon who was a member of the Sankiar. This was two of them but how many more of them there were was hard to say.

The three dragons surveyed what had been a working space around them. Scattered around on the floor of the room were the remains of several office walls and pieces of paper and the odd computer as well. The windows that ran around the office room were mostly smashed or cracked. Large holes were visible in the ceilings and some part of the wall. One hole in the ceiling a few metres to the left of the three dragons showed a further three more holes until they finally stopped and led outside onto the new roof of the building.

"Wait here," the lead dragon of the three said to the other two, who nodded and stood at attention.

The lead dragon walked into the room, gazing around with admiration in his eyes at the destruction of the once busy working place of the Humans and at the destroyed structures outside through the windows. That was common amongst these types of dragons. Although they were practically the same as the regular dragons out on the streets at the moment, they were regarded by their counterparts as 'inferiors' or a popular word, Kishans, which was similar to a strong language taunt Humans would use against someone they did not like. These dragons, known as the Sankiar, regularly received it from the others, but they really did not care, unless they were the types who were offended easily and, quite frankly, there were a lot of them.

The truth though was that these Sankiar and the regular army of dragons absolutely despised each other to death, or even beyond that! Even though they were of the same species and all looked the same, it was the way the Sankiar worked in their role in the armed forces of the invaders and their opinion of it and other races and even the regular dragon army that made them a lot different and despised. The Sankiar were a kind of elite army of dragons that had been formed…well, a very, very long time ago and they especially formed for brutality and striking fear into the hearts of the races they attacked, sometimes even co-operating with them. Their business here on Earth would be the same as they had played it out many times before and it was one they enjoyed very much. Getting rid of enemies or potential threats was what they had been trained and virtually lived for. That was really why the main regular dragon army hated them so much and the Sankiar hated them in return.

The dragon walked to the window and looked out over the city, admiring the view but also seeing several more of the trucks he and his battalion had entered the city on drive down the roads below. He smiled to himself. If there was one thing he liked, it was being in charge and he would be in charge here soon. Though, and the smile faded into a look of annoyance when he realised this, he would not be fully in control of this city, only of his men and what they could do here. Still, at least he would have some power.

A crash from his right drew his attention and he saw a tall blood red coloured dragon searching through the remains of the a fallen filing cabinet, the crash having been an office wall that he had lifted up and pushed off it. The Sankiar dragon by the window huffed and walked over to the other dragon, who heard his footsteps and looked over his shoulder at him as he approached. He did not look very happy. In fact, he glared at him, obviously disapproving of a Sankiar being here. The Sankiar dragon, on the other hand, just chuckled.

"Do not look too pleased to see me, Sorak," he said sarcastically. "I cannot be all that bad,"

"No, you are even worse, Kilar," the dragon next to the cabinet replied, not moving the glare off his face.

"Well, you are going to have to put up with me. After all, I did receive order from the High Order to come here and ensure police and security in the city,"

The other dragon stifled a laugh. "Peace and security," he shook his head. "More like death and destruction with you Kishans being here,"

The Sankiar dragon glared dangerously at him and took a step towards him, clenching his hands into fists. The other dragon did the same. Both of these dragons were about the same height and strength but their determination was changing and right now, for both of them, it was rocketing in this standoff. This just really showed how much the two dragon sides hated each other.

As explained earlier, the Sankiar had a brutal reputation for when they occupied planets and were sent in to either police a settlement or sent into combat. They took no prisoners on the battlefield and harassed and abused and bullied in the cities. Even with their own race, they were known for being aggressive, intimidating and the cause for a lot of trouble. What was really annoying for the army dragons was that nothing was done to control these Sankiar dragons. The High Order leaders did nothing for they virtually worshipped them and depended on their security and plus the fact they were very loyal and if given an order, they carried it out dutifully. If it had not been for the overall Supreme Leader of this invasion, who admired the army and, like the army dragons, despised the Sankiar, the Sankiar would have taken over the role of the army dragons and made them into more loyal soldiers.

The two stared dangerously at each other for a moment, filling the air with a tenseness that one would swing a punch at the other but, despite the aggression and hatred being put forward by both, neither was in the mood for a fight. The Sankiar dragon stepped back, but in a defiant way so as not to look as if he had been made to back down. To him, that was a disgrace to an elite dragon warrior.

"I bet you'll be looking forward to us working together in controlling these vermin," he inquired sarcastically.

"These vermin you are referring to are people as well, not scum or low-lives as you would see them," the army dragon told him, making the Sankiar dragon scoff.

"People? If they were, they would have fought to the death rather than fled into the countryside. I think if you and your army dragons were like us, you would understand,"

"No I do not think we would, and quite frankly, I would never be a part of you Sankiar and never will be,"

The Sankiar dragon chuckled. "Oh do not be so sure about that," he turned to walk back to the elevator. "One day we will be in charge here and you shall see what we will do to make you one of us. Now, if you excuse me, I have men to deploy and give instructions to patrol the city,"

With that, the Sankiar dragon walked back over to the doorway. He growled at his two soldiers to follow and they did, closing the door behind them.

The army dragon sighed and rubbed a hand hard down his face. If there was one thing he could not stand, it was working with the Sankiar. They were brutal barbarians that…that were just monsters! How they could do this was beyond him. More importantly, how whoever had managed to form them like this was beyond him. What they had planned for this city, he did not know, but he did know from experience that they would surely raise Hell here and make living here a misery for both the Humans and the army dragons.

"Men to deploy and patrol," he muttered to himself, repeating the words of the Sankiar dragon. "More like men that will cause Hell," he corrected.

Though how much he did not know, but, hopefully, not a lot.


	27. Meeting help

**The next day**

**Willits, north of San Francisco **

Quiet. That was one thing that just seemed to hang in the air now, nothing but dense quietness. Several weeks before, this town of Willits had been packed with people of all ages going out, having fun, living happy lives with no danger, but now it was completely abandoned, lifeless like a ghost town you would see in a film until the main actor(s) came in to investigate it and see why it was abandoned and probably end up discovering something monstrous or paranormal and would have to escape the town. That was what it looked like, only this time no actors were coming here, only refugees trying to flee the invaders and find somewhere where they could be safe and hope to get away from the dragons that were now swarming over the Earth.

In the main road of the town, two lonely figures walked. It was Susan and Dr Cockroach. They had been on the move since early this morning after spending the last few days in a small farmhouse a few miles south of the town and were now hoping they would find at least someone else.

Things between the two, however, had not been so hopeful. Ever since Bob had run off from them the other night, Susan had barely spoken to Dr Cockroach. Even right now that was obvious as she was walking ahead of him with her arms wrapped around her and just looking ahead blankly, thinking about Bob, Link, Insectosaurus, her parents, everyone she held dear and stuck with the petrifying thought that they were all…they were all dead or captured or something else that was horrible. It was something she felt really guilty about because she had been the only one who had saved her friends and had stopped Gallaxhar from escaping and threatening Earth again last time there was an alien invasion. Now, however, with Earth defeated and the monsters, a team which everyone thought was once unstoppable, now on the run from the new invaders, she felt unimaginable guilt and sadness sweep over her and had let it consume her as if she was infected with the plague.

Dr Cockroach was also feeling guilty like his teammate and friend. Ever since the final splitting of the group, he had been barely able to cope with it and he feared that Susan would probably leave him soon, leaving him on his own in the middle of a war, something he had faced before and was absolutely terrified of. Her sadness had also become recognizable to him because every night since bob had left them, he would hear her weeping. Even last night when they had stayed in the farmhouse, she had stayed away from him, sleeping in a separate room, and crying whilst looking outside. Dr Cockroach had heard it throughout the night and he too had wept, realising what he had done. He felt terrible for it, absolutely terrible.

But it was done and there was no way they could find their missing friends and see if they were okay. Like Susan, he feared they were all dead or captured or had gotten lost. Hopefully they were not, and the doctor wished they were here so he could apologize to them, but wishing was not going to help. Many people had, no doubt, wished that this war had not happened, but it had and wishing had not stopped it and never would. What would bring an end to it would be whether Humanity won and drove the aliens off Earth or the aliens destroyed or delivered the final blow to Humanity and made all resistance cease to exist.

It would be up to fate to decide out of the two, but it looked as though it already had for Humanity could not hope to last long under this onslaught.

As the two walked further into the town, Doctor Cockroach's stomach growled slightly and he winced, placing a hand on it. He and Susan had barely eaten and there had been little for them at the farmhouse. He looked around and saw a small supermarket just down the road. There they would get something.

"Susan?" he inquired and she stopped and looked over her shoulder at him blankly, not speaking to him. "There," he pointed over to the supermarket. "We might be able to find something to eat,"

She just nodded and walked over towards it without saying a word. Dr Cockroach sighed and followed, having failed to try and get her to talk to him and she was worried that she probably never would again.

Heaving another sigh, he followed.

The supermarket doors had been knocked over and when the two walked inside, they saw that most of the shelves were empty, some even having been knocked over; the tills were lying smashed on the floor and glass from the vending machines and freezers where they kept the cold drinks was scattered across the floor. There was not much left so they were going to have to make do with they could find.

Susan walked off quickly down one isle where the fruit had been kept. As she walked past it, most of it had rotted away to nothing, along with the vegetables next to them. Grimacing, she walked on past them, but stopped next to a small box where a few apples were. These ones were okay, green and looked very new despite having been here for several weeks and probably been thrown and pushed about as people hoped to grab what they could and escape.

She gave a small smile and picked one up. "Irradiated," she muttered. "Just like me," and took a bite, her stomach flipping with joy as she was finally eating something.

Meanwhile, further near the back of the supermarket, Doctor Cockroach made his way through the forced open back storage doors and through the large storage room into the manager's office. It was a small and square with the usual desk, light on it, several filing cabinets along the walls, a small window on the left wall, a small sofa on the right and a small television on a tiny wooden cabinet. Most of the papers that had been on the desk were scattered across the floor and one of the filing cabinets was lying on It's side with It's drawers open, one of them broken. On the floor next to the desk was a bin with rubbish inside, mostly what was left of the manager's last lunch he had had in her before the invasion. Even though most of it had gone mouldy by now, the doc did not mind. After all, he loved eating rubbish and if it was mouldy, to him it was even tastier.

He walked over to it and took out what was left of a sandwich and a bit of tin foil and popped them into his mouth, the delicious sensation flowing across his mouth as if it was a sweet. Nodding slightly in enjoyment, he swallowed.

"Lovely," he muttered. "Good to have something inside he aga-"

Suddenly, he was stopped when movement to his left caught his eye. He looked and gasped silently, his eyes growing so wide they looked as though they were going to pop out of his head, as he watched a shadow pass by the window. He shot up from the floor, adrenaline flowing through his veins. What if…?

_Oh no! _his mine thought, petrified that it could be who he thought it would be. Then, he realised something else. _Susan!_

He rushed out of the manager's office and through the storage and back into the shop area of the market, determined to find her before they did.

"Susan!" he called out, trying to keep his voice low so as not to let them know they were here. "Susan!" he called out again, frantically looking around for her.

"What is it?" she asked as she emerged from another isle. He rushed over to her and grabbed her and pulled her down the supermarket towards one of the counters.

"Get down!" he whispered, pulling her behind the counter and duking down.

"What is it, doc?" she asked him.

"I saw something go past the window in the manager's office," he told her. She went silent, a look of concern etching across her face, also believing like her friend what this shadow could be. "We'll keep quiet and ambush them," he whispered to her. "Then we'll have to run before they try and blow up the town,"

She nodded gingerly and crouched down next to him, her heart rate beginning to increase faster now, knowing that a fight was well and truly a few minutes, perhaps even a few seconds away.

From outside, light footsteps reached the doctor's ears, his advanced hearing picking them up as if they were thunder. Gradually, they began to grow louder and louder, making him feel more and more tense. He gripped the side of the counter tightly as if trying to transfer some of his fear to it, waiting for this creature to enter.

Then, a shadow passed over the floor, meaning this thing had entered. Dr Cockroach looked at Susan and nodded to her, which she returned with, and, slowly, Doctor Cockroach poked his head out from behind the counter.

However, to his amazement, he saw it was not a creature, but a soldier. He looked young, about twenty six, with short brown hair, brown eyes and was medium height. He had his M16 rifle raised in front of him, his feet cautiously stepping forward into the supermarket as if he was afraid he would be attacked.

"It's okay," Dr Cockroach whispered to Susan. "It's just a soldier,"

She breathed a quiet sigh of relief. "Thank God,"

Dr Cockroach stood up. "Soldier," he said.

The soldier gasped and spun round, slamming his finger on the trigger and was about to press down when he saw the doctor standing there.

"Doc!" he exclaimed. Susan got up from behind the counter. "Susan! What are you guys doing here?"

"Looking for breakfast," Susan told him as she climbed over the counter and jumped back down onto the floor.

"We are glad to see a friendly face," Dr Cockroach said to the soldier. "We thought you'd all been killed or driven off,"

The soldier shook his head. "Nah," he replied. "We're staying in the hills nearby," he told them.

"We're?" Dr Cockroach repeated. The soldier nodded.

"Yeah, there's a group of us here as well. Hey, c'mon, I'll take you back to the camp,"

"What you guys have a camp?" Susan asked him, a little surprised, as he walked back towards the supermarket entrance and he nodded again.

"Yep. C'mon. Monger'll sure be happy to see you guys,"


	28. Reuniting with Monger

**One hour later**

**Outside Willits**

In the hills outside the town of Willits, an army jeep drove towards the raised ground. Sitting inside it were three soldiers and two passengers, who were Dr Cockroach and Susan. They had just been picked up in the supermarket of the town earlier and were now heading towards, what the soldiers had explained, was a base set up in a small cave system. They had also explained Monger was there as well, which did surprise Dr Cockroach and Susan as the last time they had heard from him was weeks ago when he had been shot down by the aliens on his way back from Washington DC. Seeing him now after all this time would be like running into him again after years. Even though, in reality, barely any time had passed since the start of the war, it did feel like it had been years since the invasion started.

That was something they feared though,the soldiers and Susan and Dr Cockroach. What if the war did go on for years? What if it was going to be very difficult and long to drive these invaders off of Earth? If that was to be the case, then it was going to be years of suffering on an unimaginable scale. The very last time that a war like this had happened was only about seventy years ago now and that really had led to the greatest destruction Humanity had ever witnessed in conflict, the only difference between then and now was that Humanity was fighting itself. It knew how to deal with itself back then, but this time they were fighting an extra-terrestrial species that it had no knowledge of and, therefore, no clear way how to confront it and get rid of it. Alongside that, although Earth had been invaded before, the invasion had been short, only a few days at the most. This one that was possible to go on for years against a race that was, no doubt, way more aggressive and violent, at least through what Susan and Dr Cockroach had seen so far, than Gallaxhar had been, was completely uncomprehend-able to them, and the worst thing of it was they had no idea who would win. Would Humanity win or would these invaders win? They just had no idea at all and that was something they had never been faced with before, at least not to this extent.

The jeep they were in rocked slightly as it drove across a field. Behind the soldiers in the driving and the passenger seats, the third soldier stood, his M16 rifle pointed out, his eyes scanning the horizon and the skies in case they were attacked. Not too long ago, another vehicle that had been sent out north on a patrol had been attacked by an alien drone and out of the three men inside it, only one came back so they were no taking any chances this time.

"We're almost there, guys," the soldier in the driver's seat, a tall black man with short hair and green eyes and looked to be in his mid-thirties, said, looking over his shoulder at them.

"Thank you," Dr Cockroach replied.

He looked next to him at Susan, who was resting with her head against the palm of her hand. Her eyes told him she was lost in thought and worry, still obviously thinking of their missing friends. It was then another thought struck Monger. How were they to tell him of what happened to Insectosaurus, Link and Bob? How would he react when he learned of how that happened? Likely-hood: very pissed off but would he also think they would be dead as well? Maybe so, even for him with his hunches and beliefs that those who were believed dead to others were still alive to him, but then again, he may still think them alive.

To himself, however, Dr Cockroach did _really_, and emphasising the word really, that any of their three missing friends, let alone all of them, were still alive. He hated himself for thinking something like that but it could be possible. After all, everything that had been deemed impossible so far in this war became possible, so why should it stop with them?

The jeep turned on a small path that led up one part of a small hill. At the top, between two large cloves of bushes, was a kind of roadblock. Standing next to it was a soldier, also armed with an M16 rifle, who was looking down at them as they approached as if wary of them. The driver of the jeep pushed his foot down on the brake of the vehicle, slowing it to a halt as it approached the soldier. He looked through the window into the back seats and went a little wide-eyed upon seeing Dr Cockroach and Susan. Clearly he had not been expecting to see them. He patted the driver on the shoulder.

"Good work, guys," he said and opened the roadblock. The driver thanked him and drove on down the path, which came onto a slight curve before going straight towards a large flat area where a few trees were dotted about. About seventy feet ahead of them was the next part of the hill where a large cave entrance was. The jeep drove on.

As it passed several small lines of trees along the side of the path, Dr Cockroach saw several holes dug into the ground, some with machine gun emplacements next to them, others with wooden boards over them like some kind of coverings as if it were a foxhole. Outside the cave was an M1 Abrams tank emplacement with It's main gun pointed down the path. Around the clearing in front of the cave entrance were several more soldiers working on radios or setting up weapons positions. Two more soldiers were standing on top of another flat section of the hill near the cave keeping watch, looking through binoculars.

The jeep came to a halt and the driver and the passenger got out. Dr Cockroach did the same. As they did, both noticed that they were drawing looks from all over the clearing. The soldiers were obviously shocked to see two of the unstoppable monster gang right here, but whether out of gladness that they were still alive or because they were wondering what happened to the others was unknown to the two. Right now, though, they just did not care.

"Follow us," the driver said.

He led Susan and Dr Cockroach into the cave which led into a tunnel system into the hill. The tunnels were each dimly lit by lights hat ran from a single generator in a smaller tunnel coming off the right of the room. Other smaller tunnels led off to large cave rooms which were armouries, small hospitals, radio rooms or plan rooms. More soldiers were in the tunnels and these rooms. One group of three soldiers sitting on a few crates outside a storeroom looked up and saw Susan and Dr Cockroach pass them.

"Hey, check it out," one of them said to his friend, who looked up at the two.

"No way, It's that Susan and Dr Cockroach! The guys from the monster team!" he said, shocked but also ecstatic as well.

"For real?" the third soldier, who had a bandage wrapped around his eyes, said, looking up. "You guys better not be kidding me!"

"Nah, man, we're gonna be okay," the first replied.

"Wait," the second piped up. "Where are the other guys of the team?" he asked, a hint of worry in his voice.

Susan and Dr Cockroach were led around a turning right towards a large cave at the end. Several smaller cave rooms led off both left and right of the tunnel. As they passed them, Susan and Dr Cockroach glanced inside to see that most of them were small hospitals. As they passed the last cave room on the left, they saw one soldier lying on a bed with a bloodied chest, a bandage wrapped around it, and was groaning as a medical soldier stood at a kind of shelf, gathering medical equipment. Susan looked away sadly, obviously feeling guilt for this man who had been hurt and they had not been there to help him.

The soldier leading them stopped outside the cave room and poked his head inside. "Monger, we have two visitors," he said.

"Who are they?" came a familiar voice to Susan and Dr Cockroach, making them glance at each other, a little shocked upon hearing that their leader _was _still and alive and here.

"It's the doc and Susan," he replied.

Silence followed for a seconds before footfalls that gradually grew louder echoed from the cave out into the tunnel. Then, like a ghost, Monger emerged out of the cave and stared wide-eyed at Susan and Dr Cockroach for about a millisecond, as if not believing they were actually here, before he grabbed them both and embraced them tightly.

"Damn, I'm glad you two are okay," he said in a relieved tone. "We thought you guys were dead,"

"Not yet, Monger," Susan replied. He gave a slight chuckle and released them and stepped back, but quickly realised the obvious difference about them.

"Where are the others?" he asked them.

Susan and Dr Cockroach looked at each other with worry filled eyes as Monger and the soldier who had led them here waited for them to answer. A thousand questions were running through their heads. How could they tell him? How would he react? Were they right about their friends being alive or not?

"We'll tell in there," Dr Cockroach piped up after a few seconds, leading Susan and Monger into the cave.

It was a kind of oval shape with a wooden table in the middle and a map of the western coast of California, and parts of Nevada and Oregon as well, placed on it. On the floor near the right wall was radio equipment and lying next to that was a pistol with a loaded cartridge. On the right was a small television set that had wires strapped to the walls of the cave and leading out of the entrance to, no doubt, the generator. Another dimly lit bulb lighted up the cave.

"Alright, what happened to Link, Bob and Insectosaurus!" he demanded, stopping the doc from leading him and Susan into the room and faced them with a stern look as if he were a parent demanding to know something wrong the child had done. Dr Cockroach struggled to answer at first but he found the courage, and the will, to do so.

"Um…we…we had…had an argument and…Link…well, ran off," he explained, struggling how to word it all. "And then…Bob ran off after I knocked that dessert thing out of his hand…and…and we tried to get him back…but he we couldn't find him,"

Monger nodded slightly, looking down at the floor with a defeated look on his face. "What about Insecto?" he asked, a little hint of hope in his voice.

"He flew off before Link and me had the argument and…we haven't seen him since," Dr Cockroach told him.

Monger nodded lowly again and sighed heavily, rubbing a hand down the front of his face. Like Dr Cockroach and Susan, the same thoughts they had been thinking minutes earlier began to run through his head about the three missing teammates being dead or captured or lost, and the horrifying likelihood was that with the way everything was going at the moment, they could be in one of those three suggestions, though most likely the first two. What if they were lying hurt on the ground or had been vaporized or had been captured? Any of those was enough to bring fear to him and the two standing in front of him right now.

After a moment, he nodded again. "Right," he muttered. "Well, we'll see what we can do now with you guys. It's too dangerous to go after them,"

Dr Cockroach and Susan looked at each other again briefly before he looked back at Monger and nodded.

"Okay," he muttered.

Silence filled the air between them for a moment, as if they had no idea what they were to do now. Then again, what were they to do now? Were they to leave their friends out …wherever they were? Were they to sit here and wait out this war until it somehow won or until they gave up? They just did now know.

Finally, Susan broke the silence. "So what's been going on since we left?" she asked Monger.

"Well, after I got shot down, I linked up with a convoy," he explained. "We spent the last few weeks going across the country to the western seaboard. I was determined to try and find you guys but whenever we tried to go out, we got attacked and couldn't," he paused for a moment and looked over at the map. "Anyhow," he said, walking over to the map. Susan and Dr Cockroach joined him. "We've managed to make contact with any other resistance groups up and down the seaboard and they've reported that the aliens have taken control of most of the cities including San Francisco," he placed his finger on the grey dot on the map where the city was. "LA and San Diego and are also pushing into the interior of the country now," he sighed. "We've been virtually cut off in every way we can and the other day Washington surrendered so we won't be getting any more help from anywhere else,"

Susan and Dr Cockroach nodded, taking all of this in as they stared with defeated looks down at the map.

"Then we've lost," Susan said. "We can't win like this,"

It was possible through what she was saying. After all, with all of the armies either scattered or defeated and most of the cities taken over, thus stopping any chance of any communications being passed from one force to the next, there was not really any secure hope of fighting back effectively.

"Not exactly, Susan," Monger told her. She and Dr Cockroach looked up at him, puzzled. "There is in fact a way in which everyone, and I mean not just here in America, is fighting back,"

"How?" Dr Cockroach asked.

"Guerrilla warfare," he answered.


	29. Guerrilla warfare

If there was one tactic Humanity had used many times before in war in the past, it was guerrilla warfare and it had proven to be very useful in defeating the enemies of those using it. All the way from the times of the ancient civilizations right up to the Second World War and even up to the 1979-1989 war in Afghanistan between the Mujahedeen and the Soviets, it had dealt superior forces crippling blows and many times, it had forced them to leave the war entirely or end the part of it where they and the guerrillas were fighting each other.

With the invaders, the now scattered remnants of the Earth's military and civilians had hoped to use this tactic against them. However, many feared that with the invaders' advanced technology they would stand little chance against them and that soon they would be destroyed or defeated and forced to give up. Still though, many tried it out, hoping for some success, even just a little.

And to their amazement, it was working, not very well as in great victories, but good enough on a scale that would really irritate the leaders of the aliens. It was happening globally all over the world, and next to the results of causing havoc and chaos among the invaders' military, there was also something out coming out of this as well.

Humanity, for three million years, had been divided by racial, social, political, economic, religious, and the circle of life ways that was in all forms of life. For so long, every so called 'race' of different people, whether white, black, brown or yellow. Asian, African, European, Native American etc. All of them had been divided by these things for so long in one way or another. But now, for the first time, Humanity had put aside everything it held against each other and had united under one single banner in the belief that this was literally a war that would determine the future of the Human race of whether it would continue to live freely under It's own wishes and way of life, or whether it would be ruled by an extra-terrestrial species that would, no doubt as this had happened many times in Human history, be friendly, but also brutal forms.

This, in turn, had united enemies alike everywhere to fight a common enemy.

**Helmand province, Afghanistan**

In the rugged hills and mountains of the Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, a small group of NATO and Taliban soldiers, numbering about fifteen altogether, moved single file along a path along a small mountain, keeping low so as not to avoid any detection by any of the invaders' drones or soldiers they knew were in the area. They all held a variety of weapons including M16's, pistols, AK-47's and a few RPG's. They were moving along here to a small ridge where they would be able to overlook a road where a small convoy of the invaders' vehicles was moving along. With them on the high ground, they planned to ambush them and start fighting back effectively at these creatures for invading their home world.

It was so hard to imagine it now that just weeks ago, these NATO and Taliban soldiers were at each other's throats hoping to beat one another in a war that had been raging for almost ten years, not giving up an inch. Now, however, these two sworn enemies had put aside their differences and united under a single banner to fight to defend their home world from these aliens.

"Alright, start settin' up," one of the soldiers, who was British, said.

The others moved over to the ridge whilst two, an American and a local Taliban fighter, kept an eye on the way they had come. A second Taliban soldier lay down on the other side of the ridge, training his weapon on a second path that led up to the ridge from near where the road was. This was likely where the dragons were to come up if they tried charging them as the frontal approach to the ridge was too rocky and sheer. The first British soldier joined the other eleven members of the group, made up of another two British soldiers, another American, two Bulgarians and five local fighters, made up of Taliban and Northern Alliance soldiers, along a small rock wall along the front of the ridge. He gazed down at the road below and saw several vehicles of the aliens moving along.

There were three of the oval shaped trucks but there were two new types of vehicles among the convoy as well. One of them was a vehicle with a short, fat rectangular base with treadmills moving it along like a normal Human tank would do. It had several small bulges which were placed at the four corners of the vehicle's base and a large gun, which had a main spherical shape with a kind of cylindrical nozzle which had several circular pieces that could retract into each other from the smallest at the end to the largest on the front of the sphere, placed in the middle, rising about five feet above the base of the vehicle. This was probably a tank. There was only one in the convoy.

The other vehicle was a longer and thinner rectangular shape and almost looked like a block driving on wheels, except there were small windows on the front and several doors along the side. Six large wheels were placed on the bottom of the vehicle to enable it to drive along. Along the top of the vehicle were three small guns. They were long and thin, about twenty feet in length, with a tiny silo at the ends. At the back of the guns on the top were small bulges, one on each, with a light green light on it, probably where the pilot(s) of the gun sat to operate it. Around each gun was a tall metallic wall to protect it. The roof of the vehicle was about ten feet off the ground and on the end of it was a small ladder. There was also only one of these vehicles in the convoy as well in the middle just behind the tank. They kind of reminded the soldier looking down at them of one of Hussein's old SCUD launchers, only, next to these being invented by aliens, there was no missile on the top of it.

One of the Afghans spoke in Pashtu to his comrades who were armed with RPG's who nodded and stood up. The British soldier who had just joined those along the wall looked through his binoculars down at the convoy. If they took out the lead vehicles first and then the rear vehicle, it would be stuck.

"ALLAH AKBAR!" WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

A cloud of dust was suddenly thrown up into the air as two RPG's flew out towards the convoy, spinning madly in the air as they went. Then, a chorus of explosions erupted from below as one of the missiles collided with the front oval truck, causing it to flip onto It's side and roll off the road. The other vehicles suddenly screeched to a halt and some of the occupants got out and began shouting at one another, confusion reigning amongst them over what was going on.

BOOM! The other RPG slammed into the side of the long rectangular vehicle, rocking it and almost tipping it over. A small hole was visible on the side of the vehicle when the dust had cleared, also revealing one of the doors literally hanging on by a thread of metal.

The fighters began clapping and patting each other's shoulders. The rest of the group did the same or let out a victorious laugh, finally having a victory against the invaders.

**Outside Pyongyang, North Korea**

In the mountains of North Korea just outside the remains of the peninsula's northern capitol, two Korean civilian men and a Korean soldier sneaked through the trees on the side of the mountain towards a small camp the invaders had set up. They had a small pack of matches and a weapon each and were planning to set fire to a small supply depot in a camp the aliens had set up nearby. The two civilian men had both been north Koreans and the soldier was a south Korean, both once sworn enemies to each other, but now they were standing shoulder to shoulder with each other to fight this new threat.

Then, they reached it. The camp was made up of a few small crates and parked around it were several more oval shaped trucks. On the side of the camp, near where the three Korean men were sneaking towards, were two large metallic crates with the entrances into the, open. One was filled with ammunition, the other with food and water. Both were perfect targets. A few dragons were on guard but were just talking to one another, unaware of the threat coming towards them.

The three Korean men stopped in the trees just near the crates and the soldier spoke in their native language to the two civilians, who nodded and ran off as quietly as they could towards the crates, the soldier following them, his weapon raised in case they were spotted.

A few moments later, the three ran back into the trees as an almighty explosion filled the air behind them, filling the sky with a fiery red/orange/yellow colour. Shouting followed as the dragons rushed to see what had caused their supplies to suddenly explode.

That was going to be a headache for them for a while.

**Democratic Republic of Congo/Republic of Congo border**

Within the plains and the savannah of the southern central African wilderness, a group of ten Congolese militants hid in the bushes near a river, their rifles and AK-47 weapons trained at the waterside, waiting for a group of dragons they had seen nearby go near the water for a drink. These men were from the same but divided nation, once having been sworn enemies. Now, like the rest of the world, they stood together as a united people to fight the dragon invaders.

One of the men muttered to his comrades and pointed out through a small gap in the bushes at the other side of the river. At first there was nothing but then, from behind a large clump of bushes and trees, came a group of three dragons. One of them pointed to the river and said something in his language to his friend, who nodded and they walked towards it for a drink, a chance to quench their thirst after going out on patrol on the hunt for the many militant groups roaming about in this wilderness.

The men loaded their weapons and waited until the dragons were close enough. Their faces contorted into looks of concentration as they aimed and set their fingers on the triggers of their weapons. Two of the dragons knelt down by the river and began scooping up water in their hands to drink whilst the other kept watch, all of them completely unaware of the threat just a few metres from them.

Then, the militants open fired on the dragons. For a few seconds, the air was filled with gunfire and screaming as the bullets tore into the three exposed dragons. They stood no chance and all were killed in a matter of seconds. The Congolese militants then quickly fled from the scene, knowing that more of these dragons would arrive soon to discover what had happened to their missing comrades.

It looked like the invasion did have an upside after all. Humanity was united like never before in this war, but would this global alliance between the nations last and be strong enough to win the conflict?


	30. A possible breakthrough?

**One week later**

**August 15****th**

The last week with Monger and the soldiers in the hills had been mostly quiet, not uneventful, just quiet. They had not moved or gone out much from the caves other than to search for food in what was left of Willits or the surrounding forest. Army rations were beginning to run low because they were no longer getting airdropped for there were no planes left to do, plus it was too dangerous even if there were. What was also affecting them was the summer and their dwindling freshwater supplies. They had enough to last them for another two, maybe three weeks at best so everyone had to conserve theirs with great care.

As for the invaders, they had barely seen them over the last week. It just seemed now that they were set on staying in the cities, but every so often a drone or a large zeppelin-like ship, no doubt one of the invaders', would go overhead on a patrol or a search for any survivors. They had not found the camp yet but there was always the fear they would do soon and what would happen, well…there was not really any point in explaining that.

For now though, a dense calm had descended over the area. Several soldiers were just lounging about in the small foxholes or sitting on the back of vehicles, some of them talking to their friends or looking up at the sky to keep an eye out for any drones, but the last time they saw one had been a few days ago and they had only seen it for a few moments before it disappeared. To be completely honest, they found it…well boring is the best way to put it. Not that they enjoyed war or anything, but they had expected to come under attack almost daily by the invaders and yet they had been here for some time and had not been attacked, which, on the other hand, was a good thing because there was no doubt that all of them would be killed if they were attacked. For some though, it was frustrating with all this waiting because the fear of an attack actually hitting them, and possibly soon, was starting to get to them. There had been a few times already when some had tried to get away and ended up causing a panic amongst the others. Most of them, though, were caught but their friends or Susan and Dr Cockroach but those that weren't had gotten away and what had happened to them now…no one knew.

Sitting on the back of a small pile of rocks near the cave entrance was Dr Cockroach. He was leaning back against the side of one rock with one leg draped over another, looking up at the sky with his hands resting on his stomach, just staring at the mostly blue sky, occasionally watching a fly drift lazily overhead. He had been out here since this morning. There was nothing new going in or coming out of the main war plan room where Monger was and nothing new had happened around them here so what was the point really in staying in there?

Susan, as much as he hated to admit, was not really one of them because she was still quiet about what had happened between their group and Dr Cockroach had…had descended back into an old self of him, one that he thought he had left behind in the war almost seventy years ago. He just did not care, not that he did not care for his friends but that he did not care for any sulking or anyone being upset because it was not going to get them anywhere. He kept telling himself that if she was going to sulk, then he would let her. He had tried everything to reconcile with her but nothing was working so he just left her to it. She would get over it eventually for she would have to because the possibility of seeing Link, Bob or Insecto again was very low at best.

He sighed and picked off a bit of the rock next to him and threw it at the tree tops, listening to it rustle through the leaves before going silent as it hit the ground.

"Hey, doc,"

Dr Cockroach sat up a little and looked over his shoulder to see a soldier walking over to him. He was in his late twenties/early thirties and had brown hair, green eyes and was quite heavily built. He raised his hand in a kind of greeting and nodded.

"Yes?" Dr Cockroach inquired, sitting up even more.

"Are you alright?" the soldier asked as he reached him.

Dr Cockroach nodded. "Oh, yes, I'm fine," he replied in a tones voice, resting his head back on the rock behind him and gazing back up at the sky.

The soldier, however, was not convinced but decided to say nothing. He reached into his pocket and took out a small box the size of the palm of his hand and opened it to reveal several cigarettes. He took one out from his pocket and reached into his other one but could not find his lighter.

"C'mon!" he growled, trying to find it. "Must have it somewhere!"

Dr Cockroach saw him and he reached into his trouser pocket and took out a small cylindrical device and clicked a button on the side of it and a small flame came out of the end of it. He held it out to the soldier, almost hitting him in the face, and he saw it and lit his cigarette.

"Thanks, doc," he said.

"It's okay," he replied as he put his device away. The soldier climbed up onto the rock and sat on the one next to him.

"You want one?" he offered, holding out the box to him.

"No, thank you," Dr Cockroach replied. "I don't like something that's not good for the health,"

The soldier stifled a laugh. "Yeah, but…these things are addictive. Besides, they relieve stress a little," he took another puff and blew out a small cloud of smoke into the air.

Dr Cockroach looked up at him with a slight questionable expression on his face. "I thought they said no smoking here anyway," he said.

"Tell that to them," the soldier replied with the cigarette between his teeth, jerking his thumb over in the direction of the entrenched M1 Abrams tank. Dr Cockroach looked and saw another two soldier resting on the back of it, talking to two other soldiers standing below, all of them smoking. "Not really ones for listening to every little rule here," the soldier added.

Dr Cockroach gave a slight chuckle and looked back up at him. "Lucky they weren't in my country's army back in the war," he said. "They would've been made to clean the toilets or clean the entire barracks or something,"

The soldier chuckled and nodded slightly. "Tough rules, huh?"

"Yes, tough rules."

Silence fell between the two for a moment, only being pierced by the soldier taking another breath from his cigarette and blowing the smoke into the wind before he decided to introduce himself.

"Malarkey," he said to the doctor, holding up his hand. "Malarkey Samuels,"

The doctor shook his hand. "Nice to meet you," he replied as he released his hand. The soldier coughed and drew another breath from his cigarette. "So, what do ya think'll happen?" her asked Malarkey, who shrugged.

"Dunno," he replied. "What worries me is how long this could go on for. Days? Weeks? Months? Who knows?" he drew another breath from his cigarette, which he was about half-way down now. "What's wrong with Susan anyway?" he asked.

Upon hearing this, Dr Cockroach looked down sadly at the ground below. Malarkey saw this and became a little worried. "Oh, sorry," he said. "I didn't realise-"

"No, no, It's fine," Dr Cockroach replied, heaving a sigh as he shifted to make himself more comfortable. "I suppose you've realised that not all of us are here," Malarkey nodded. "Well, we had a few confrontations with each other and now Link, Bob and Insectosaurus…" he shrugged. "I have no idea where they are. And Susan does seem to think all of it is my fault when It's not and so I am going to have to leave her to find that out for herself,"

Malarkey nodded slightly. "But don't you think it would be best if you try and…well talk to her?"

"Not really. Besides, I've just decided to leave her to it," he sighed. "Right now…I just don't care anymore,"

"Hey look, doc-" Malarkey said but that was as far as he got.

"EVERYONE GET UNDER COVER!" someone shouted from nearby.

At once, a frenzy of activity broke out amongst those outside. Dr Cockroach and Malarkey sat up and looked over to see soldiers rushing to foxholes or into the cave. Some even went to the trees whilst others covered the tank with large makeshift branches and leaves tied together to camouflage it.

"Best hide," Dr Cockroach said as the two climbed down from the rocks. Malarkey stubbed out his cigarette on the ground and ran after him, hiding in the small grove of trees. Dr Cockroach looked around the flat part of the hill to see that now everyone was gone as if they had disappeared without a trace. Also, it was densely quiet as if someone had flicked a switch. It was amazing how all of this be silenced in a matter of seconds when faced with danger.

"Wonder what it is?" Malarkey asked.

"Could be anything," Dr Cockroach replied. "Probably just another drone passing overhead,"

Oh, how wrong he was.

Although it was a flying creation, as a large shadow passed overhead, almost blocking out the sunlight from getting to the hill, he and everyone else saw that it this time it was more than just on a patrol.

Looking up, Dr Cockroach saw it was another of the large zeppelin-like flying machines. It actually almost did look like a zeppelin, the only differences being that there was a large crescent moon-like bridge on the front of the craft, it was not being powered by hydrogen and there were three large silo engines on the back. The entire thing was silver like a zeppelin and was about one hundred feet long and about sixty feet high and was hovering about two hundred feet above the ground. As all eyes were trained on it, the craft seemed to be moving overhead as if searching the area for something.

"Hopefully, it won't see us," one soldier muttered to his two buddies as they hid in a foxhole on the side of the road.

At the cave entrance, Susan poked her head out and looked up at the craft as it moved overhead and gulped, shivering with fear, knowing that if it saw them, then they were all dead.

All of a sudden, a loud crackling noise emitted from the craft, almost deafening those below, who covered their ears as the noise rumbled across the land for a split second before going quiet, and a voice began to speak.

_"Attention! Attention, Humans!" _it called. _"This is a public speaker announcing to you! Surrender yourselves! You cannot hope to fight in this way with the few weapons and manpower you have at your disposal. Surrender and you can be reunited with you families in peace!"_

Dr Cockroach and Malarkey looked at each other questionably. What? They were calling out to them to give up, and on reasonable terms? That…that _was_surprising. They had been completely caught off guard by it, though there was doubt lingering in the heads of many of them. Were they telling the truth though? Or were they doing this so as to draw them out and then fire on them and kill them.

_"H-" KZK "Humans!" _the voice continued. _"We know of your presence! Please give up! We promise to help your wounded and suffering! We promise to have you reunited with your families! Just lay down your arms! Lay down your arms!"_

The craft moved on overhead away from the hill to the north. Susan poked her head out and watched it go, her mind filled with what she had just heard and, quite frankly, she was partly moved by it. A chance to be reunited with her family! If they were still alive, then she could be with her parents again!

But…what of the doc? She looked over at him to see him and another soldier slowly emerge from their hiding spot, as was everyone else. In fact, what of everyone else? Could she just leave them like this? It was a hard decision and now, thinking about it, it would probably end up conflicting her.

"Hey, look!" a nearby soldier pointed up the road.

Susan and everyone else who heard him looked to where he was pointing and saw a small jeep shooting up the path towards the cave as quickly as it would go. Inside it, she could see there were two soldiers. The jeep screeched to a halt a few metres from the cave and both got out and ran past Susan into the cave before she or anyone else could stop them.

"Wonder what that's about?" Dr Cockroach muttered to himself as he ran over to the cave entrance.

"What was that about?" he asked Susan.

"No idea," she replied. "Let's go see,"

The two ran into the cave and through the tunnel system to the war plan room at the end. When they reached it, they saw Monger and the two soldiers going over several photographs taken on a mobile phone that they had hooked up to a projector.

"We managed to take a close up one of the craft," one of the soldiers was saying to Monger and he clicked a button his phone. As Susan and Dr Cockroach entered the room, they saw the image on the projector change to show them a large craft. Dr Cockroach and Susan recognized it instantly.

"Ah, good, you two are here," Monger said, looking over his shoulder at them, as were the two soldiers.

"What's happened?" Dr Cockroach asked.

"These two came back from the forest to the south of here and photographed this," Monger replied, pointing at the screen.

"That's the craft we saw when Insectosaurus disappeared," he said.

"I thought it looked recognizable," Susan replied.

"What was it doing?" Monger asked the soldiers.

"Well, sir," one of them, a medium height blonde haired, blue eyed soldier of about thirty two, explained. "It had this green haze emanating out of the bottom of it and it was…the best was to put it…sucking up trees and undergrowth into it,"

Monger, Susan and Dr Cockroach looked at each other with slightly wide-eyes. Could they have learned why the invaders were here now? It would be a breakthrough in all this if they would.

"Sucking up trees and undergrowth?" Dr Cockroach repeated and the soldier nodded.

"Yeah, but we couldn't stay near it for long because they had several ground soldiers patrolling around it as it moved. That's when we took off that thing came over here,"

Monger slammed a hand on the table. "Damn!" he growled. "If they find out about us here, they could attack,"

"What if we hit them first?" Susan suggested and the four men in the room looked at her. "I mean, what if we attacked them somehow and made it look like we were a powerful force. Then they might back off,"

Monger and Dr Cockroach looked at each other. Actually, what she was saying was a good idea. If they could try and trick the enemy with an attack, then they might stop coming over this part, though that might, in turn, reveal their position to them and probably end up leading to an attack. Hopefully not, but with the way this war was going, it could possibly happen.

After a moment, Monger nodded. "Alright, Susan," he said. "We'll go ahead with it," he looked over at the photograph. "And I know just what can be attacked," his head looked at the two soldiers and Dr Cockroach. "And _who _can attack it,"


	31. Successful, but costly

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Well it wasn't my idea, but I think it could succeed,"

In the forest to the south of Willits, Dr Cockroach stood next to a tree and finished tying three packs filled with C4 and his own homemade explosives to it. With him were two soldiers, one of them Malarkey and the other was a soldier about the same height as Malarkey with short brown hair and blue eyes. His name was Andy. Both of them had M16 rifles with them and stood watch as the doctor tied a final knot in the rope he had taken with them from the base to the tree.

"Almost…" he grunted, pulling the two bits of rope as tight as he could. "Almost! Got it!"

He stepped back and admired his work. The packs of C4 were tied very tightly to the bark of the tree and it would take a strong person to undo the rope, especially as it was tied in one of his knots, ones that did not come undone very easily.

"That will put a dent in the harvester probe they have sent out here," he said as he knelt down and began working on a small set of button underneath the pack of explosives to set the time. As he did this, Andy and Malarkey kept watch with uneasy eyes, scanning the tree tops for any sign of anything that looked like it was from space.

"I hope it doesn't see us," Malarkey muttered.

"Same here," Andy replied, looking through the undergrowth around them, keeping an eye out for any of the dragons.

What they were both referring to was the probe they had seen on the mobile phone back at the base earlier on. They knew it was still somewhere in this area because earlier on they had passed a small trail of the forest that had the trees pulled right out of the ground along with all of the bushes and plants around it. It was shocking to see that something could do that, especially with barely any effort. Even the dominant species on Earth would have trouble getting one tree out of the ground with machines, let alone a whole trail of…God knows how many, and these dragons had taken them out by simply hovering over them.

"They almost set, doc?" Malarkey asked him.

"Almost," he replied. "Just a few more seconds,"

"Just hurry, please," Andy said in a slightly worried voice. "I just wanna get outta here before they see us,"

Dr Cockroach paused for a moment, his face going slightly sad. Andy reminded him of Link by the way he was rushing him. His mind filled with the thoughts of when he and Link had their argument in the cave on the night he ran off. Where was he now? Was he still out there, was he dead or had he been captured? Any one of those three questions held the answer.

Shaking his head clear, Dr Cockroach set himself back onto setting the time for the explosives.

Malarkey scanned the tree tops with his eyes, his finger on the trigger of his weapon, ready to fire on any dragons that might appear all of the sudden to attack them. That probe had to be here somewhere but exactly where he did not know. Maybe it might have gone, but if it returned maybe later today or tomorrow or any other day onwards it might suck up the tree and blow itself up. That was only providing the explosives could get inside and even if they could, there was the chance that the craft might be indestructible on the inside as well as on the outside. They just did not know what would happen to them.

Just then, as he turned his head to look at another section of tree tops, a loud snapping sound reached his ears. Andy and Dr Cockroach heard it too because both froze and slowly looked in the direction of the sound.

"W-what was that?" Dr Cockroach asked in a worried tone.

"Sounded like something being pulled out of the ground," Andy replied, taking a step towards the trees where the noise was coming from, raising his weapon.

Dr Cockroach quickly finished setting the time for the explosives and stood up, going as quiet as a mouse with Malarkey and Andy as they waited to hear what would happen next. Several more noises erupted from the direction of where they had heard the first noise of something being pulled out of the ground, each one gradually getting louder than the last. Andy gulped and clutched his weapon tighter, slowly backing away towards the trees behind them. Dr Cockroach and Malarkey did the same, the urge to run filling them.

Dr Cockroach looked over his shoulder and saw, with his enhanced eyesight, a small ravine not far from them, about seventy feet away.

"Quick, over there," he pointed.

The three ran over to it and dived into the ravine, pulling themselves up to the edge where a few rocks and fallen branches were and looked over to where they had been, waiting and watching. The noise they had heard before steadily grew louder and louder. It sounded like buildings were being pulled out of the ground and collapsed as they did so.

Then, the trees about twenty feet from where the three had been suddenly became uprooted, spraying dirt and leaves everywhere, but instead of falling down onto the ground with an echoing boom, they began to rise up through a light green haze that was emanating from the bottom of a large grey machine. That was it. That was the one that had seen, but now they were seeing it up close, it looked even more terrifying and larger than when they had seen it on the photograph back at the base.

"Jeez!" Malarkey whispered. "Thank God it can't see us,"

"Or them," Dr Cockroach added, pointing ahead near the trees.

The other two looked and saw what he meant. On the ground around the bottom of the craft were three dragons, all of them had a kind of blood red colour to their skin and were each armed with a long silver tube with a small trigger near the back of the tube on the bottom side. Green lights were along the side of it. At the moment, they were busy walking along just outside the green haze, scanning around their surroundings to make sure there were no Humans ready to spring an ambush on them.

"I hope the plan works," Andy muttered. The other two nodded in agreement and lowered their heads so they were out of view of the dragons, waiting for the explosion from the C4 charges.

Meanwhile, under the craft, one of the dragons, who was about six foot four and had a heavily built body walked along, scanning the forest around them with his red eyes to ensure the safety of himself and his comrades both on the ground and those in the ship, particularly his brother Kona on board the ship above him. He kept his silver tubed weapon close. This was what his kind had called the _.75 Raika rifle_, much like a normal Human rifle, onlythat it fired blasts of high energy rather than bullets.

_"Shona!" _one of the dragons on the ground on the other side of the ray called. He looked at him. _"Do you see anything?"_

The first dragon shook his head. _"No, nothing," _he replied in his native tongue.

The other nodded and walked on, the three on the ground having to move away from the ray a little more as it swept up another tree from the ground and brought it up into the ship.

However, they were all unaware of the danger that was about to befall them.

Back in the ravine, Malarkey raised his head slightly and looked on with hope at the place where they had planted the explosives. He bit his lower lip with a sense of hope running through his veins with his blood.

"C'mon!" he muttered to himself as if he was silently praying. "Please! Please work!"

Andy and Dr Cockroach looked up as well, watching the craft near the tree they had left. Their hearts seemed to beat louder and harder than ever as it neared the tree as if they themselves wanted to break out and see what would happen when the three with the explosives was sucked up into the craft. Dr Cockroach held his breath, watching the craft near the tree with every passing second.

Then, the tree was suddenly uprooted from the ground and lifted slowly up into the air towards the craft as if two giant invisible hands had grabbed it and pulled it out of the ground akin to when someone would be cleaning their garden of weeds. The three watched it rise up and up the haze towards the craft for the few seconds it was visible before it disappeared inside it.

"Best get down!" Dr Cockroach warned. The other two obeyed and threw themselves to the ground, covering their heads as best as they could with their hands.

Seconds later…**BOOM! **The air seemed to explode into a fireball as the tree with the explosives detonated inside it. The three dragons below were thrown to the ground by the force of the explosion. The first shot up with an almost petrified expression on his face as the craft blew up in the centre, followed by another two explosions out of the side. The haze flickered madly for a few seconds as the ship began to descend. Then, with another almighty explosion that sent the dragon diving behind a tree, the craft broke in two and slammed into the tree tops around it, breaking up even more and crashing to the ground.

Malarkey was the first to look up from the ravine and watched the craft as it was scattered over the surface of where they had just been. He forced out a chuckle of disbelief and patted the other two on the backs.

"Guys!" he exclaimed. "It…it worked!"

The other two got up and looked over as well, relief and amazement sweeping through them like water overtaking a rock on a shoreline. It had worked! It had actually worked! Maybe…maybe there was a chance they could win now.

"Good job, guys," Andy said, patting the doctor and Malarkey on the back. "We better go before any more of 'em arrive,"

Agreeing wisely, they crouched down and, picking up their weapons, began to move right up the ravine back in the direction of the jeep they had used to get here, hoping to evade any more dragons that might come out to aid their friends.

Back at the crash site, the first dragon rushed out of the trees, his face contorted into panic, his red eyes now shining in the fire with tears of fear over his friends, but mostly his brother.

"_Kona!" _he shouted, throwing his weapon to the ground, praying for an answer. _"Kona, yui ter lok?" Where are you?_

A light groan from nearby caught his attention above the flames and the dragon looked over. He almost collapsed with grief.

Under a pile of metal of what had been the innards of the ship was a smaller red dragon, about six feet tall and had slightly lighter red skin. It was his brother, Kona. He rushed over to him and knelt down beside him, resting a hand on his shoulder.

_"Kona," _he breathed. _"I will get you out of here! Just stay with me, my brother,"_

All he got was a weak reply and a shake from his brother's head. He watched as he reached down to a small belt hidden from view by the pile of rubble and pulled out a small square shaped object with a holographic setting between two small metallic panels, the entire thing being the size of a Human's palm, and handed it to his brother.

_"T-tell Mina and...Suki…I love them," _he breathed weakly, his body slipping away. He reached out with his hand and clutched his brother's hand tightly. _"Goodbye brother," _he managed to choke out before his eyes closed and his hand released his grip on his brother's hand and he went quiet.

The dragon knelt by his brother, his heart wrenching as if it were being crushed from inside him. His brother was…was younger than him and this had been the first time he had been in combat, and he was gone. His buried his face in his hands for a moment, taking a deep breath to control himself before looking down at the small object he had in his hands. He was going to have to tell people his brother knew very well what had happened to him. He could only imagine their reaction when he revealed it.

Just then, snapping from nearby caused him to look up. At first he saw nothing, thinking it was metal cracking from the flames. Then, he saw three figures emerge from a ravine. Humans!

At once, all his grief was replaced by a fiery hatred that seemed to explode within him like a supernova. With a roar, he rushed over to his weapon, grabbed it and took off after the Humans, his heart now thinking of one thing and one thing only; revenge.

Dr Cockroach, Malarkey and Andy ran through the undergrowth of the forest. They were still relieved that their mission had been a success, but now they had to get out of here. The only problem was; which way was the jeep? They stopped in a clearing to try and retrace their steps.

"What about that way?" Dr Cockroach suggested, pointing right.

"Nah, It's that way," Andy piped up, pointing ahead of them.

"What about in the direction onwards from the other side of the ravine?" Malarkey suggested, jerking his thumb in that direction.

Before any of them could answer, the forest around them seemed to explode with heat as blasts were fired out from the bushes at them. The three bolted for cover, narrowly avoiding being killed.

"Everyone, split up!" Dr Cockroach exclaimed. "Meet back at the jeep,"

The other two obeyed and ran off in different directions. Dr Cockroach ran left and disappeared into the depths of the trees.

Malarkey ran as fast as he could, jumping over logs and whirling around trees, determined to find his way back to the jeep and the others. He kept his weapon close and looked over his shoulder every few seconds to see if the dragon, or dragons, was chasing him. He did not know how many of them were left. There were three on the ground when the craft exploded and at least one of them had to have been killed when it crashed to the ground.

Preoccupied with his fear and glancing over his shoulder, Malarkey failed to notice a small hole on the ground in front of him. His foot landed in it and he tripped up. With a yell, he crashed to the earth, his foot slamming to the ground with a bone-crushing force, dropping his weapon on the ground head of him. Pain flared up from his ankle and, groaning as he turned over, he clutched it, only to feel as if someone had stuck a knife through it.

"Ah! God!" he gasped in pain, gritting his teeth together to try and conceal it within him. "Great, now I'm stuck out here with a broken ankle!" he growled to himself.

**XX**

Just then, rustling behind him reached his ears and, looking up with utmost fear lingering in his eyes, he saw a dragon marching towards him, a look of real hatred and fury on It's face. It's hand clutched tightly on the weapon it had, the eyes set in a deadly glare and heavy breaths exiting and entering It's body, it would not take an idiot to tell it was furious. Malarkey tried to back away but found it hard to do so with one ankle broken.

Then, the dragon slammed a clawed foot down on his broken ankle, making him cry out in pain, and growled something. Malarkey looked up into his eyes as if praying he would be spared.

He was gratefully mistaken.

The dragon raised his rifle, pointing it at the Human's forehead; his teeth clutched together, one hand clenched into a fist and a sense of revenge clouding everything else he recognized. This was what he wanted now and he was going to enjoy doing it for what they had done to his brother. He looked into Malarkey's eyes once more, meeting his fearful and hopeful gaze for mercy, but he shook it aside and pulled the trigger.

The noise of the blast filled the air and the dragon walked off back in the direction of the burning remains of the ship, his body now empty of any happy or overjoyed emotion, but also any grief or sorrow for that matter, leaving Malarkey's corpse behind on the ground to rot.


	32. Leaving the caves

The jeep careered up the path towards the caves, tires screeching madly as they went, throwing waves of dirt across the ground as it went. Inside, Dr Cockroach clung tightly to his seat as Andy drove the vehicle up onto the long path that led to the hills.

"Ah!" Dr Cockroach blurted out when the jeep shook wildly again as it turned onto the path that led to the hills.

"Sorry," Andy replied. "Just wanna get back there quickly before they start sending soldiers out,"

Dr Cockroach nodded uncertainly at this. _Just try and do it in one piece though _he mentally said to himself.

Further up the path, the soldiers looked towards the way up to the caves to see the jeep speeding towards them. Some of them gave each other uncertain looks, wondering what the rush was. Susan, who was sitting on the rocks near the cave entrance with one hand a curled fist in front of her mouth and drumming the fingers of her other hand on her knees, a look of worry on her face, looked over to see the jeep coming back. A sense of relief began to fill her. She had been worried about the three when they had set off to attack this harvester of the invaders. That had been just under an hour ago now and she was worried that they were not going to come back.

She had wanted to go on this mission as well but Monger did not want her to go in case this attack went wrong and something happened to them. Dr Cockroach felt the same way and refused to let Susan join them, fearing for her safety, knowing that she would probably be the last hope for the struggling Human resistance movement if something was to happen to him. Reluctantly, she had to agree and watched him go with a heavy heart, hoping he would return.

But wait. Did she know what had happened? Susan climbed down from the rocks quickly and rushed over as the jeep came to a halt and Andy and Dr Cockroach got out. Almost immediately, like bird rushing to a piece of bread tossed to them, the soldiers rushed over to them and began bombarding them with questions.

"What happened?"

"Did you hit the harvester?"

"Are you guys okay?"

"Where's Malarkey?"

"Doc?"

Dr Cockroach looked over the heads of the soldiers around him and saw Susan standing just outside the crowd. He moved through the crowd to her.

"Hello, my dear," he greeted.

"What happened?" she asked him.

"We got it," he told her, a slightly relieved tone in his voice, only for it to drop again as if he was dreading telling her the bad news of the mission. "But…" he paused for a moment. "Malarkey didn't come back,"

Susan nodded and looked down at the ground, her eyes filling with sympathy for the lost soldier. Behind them, the rest of the group had also turned quiet. Some of them were doing the same as Susan or were talking among themselves quietly, knowing that a member of their group was gone. As ard as it was for them though, they just had to get on with it.

After a moment, the group began to separate back to where they had been, though much quieter than they had been before the two had returned. Andy walked over to the doctor and Susan, looking at them gloomily.

"Did they take it alright?" Dr Cockroach asked him, though he already had a feeling what the answer would be.

"Sort of," was Andy's reply. "Bit quiet, as you can probably see," he added, nodding at the soldiers.

Dr Cockroach nodded and heaved a heavy sigh. "Well, we best tell Monger of our success," he said.

"No need, doc," his voice suddenly piped up, making them jump. The three looked over towards the cave to see him approaching them. "I heard everything and can see that someone's not returned," he said lowly. "But, we still have to continue." He paused for a moment, as if remembering Malarkeys sacrifice here. Having been in WW2, he had lost many of his comrades in the fighting in Europe back then so this was something that was very familiar to him. "So, what happened after you guys fled?" he asked the doctor and Andy.

"Nothing," Andy replied. "But, by the looks of this attack and the fact that one of those zeppelins had come over here earlier and said it knew we were here, there's no doubt they're gonna want to strike back at us,"

Monger nodded when he heard this. Yes, what Andy was telling him was definitely true to the very point. As soon as word of this attack reached the invaders, which it probably had by now, they would retaliate quickly, and possibly ruthlessly for their fallen comrades, against them. He straightened up.

"Start spreading the word for everyone to pack up," he commanded. "We're leaving. I want everyone ready to go in ten minutes,"

"Yes, sir!" the three replied, saluting. Andy rushed off to warn the other soldiers what had been ordered. Dr Cockroach and Susan followed Monger back into the cave to help him pack up the equipment.

"Never thought we would be leaving here this early," Dr Cockroach said to Susan as they entered the cave, the dim light within it overwhelming them.

She nodded. "It'll probably be the first of many," she replied.

Exactly ten minutes later, the convoy of four jeeps and the M1 Abrams tank was driving down the path away from the hills and turned left at the bottom of the path that led up to it, heading north now in the direction of the Oregon state. Dr Cockroach and Susan, who were sitting in the second jeep from the front with Monger, looked back at the hills that had been their home for the past few weeks, wondering what would be left of it if the invaders decided to attack before entering.

Though, at the same time, a humorous thought did enter his brain. What if they were to enter the cave system, all prepared and ready for battle and find it empty? Dr Cockroach smiled at himself when he thought of this. Well, that would really piss them off if that happened. He could only imagine their anger and frustration now when they would reach it.

Sitting back down in his seat, he stared out ahead of them through the windscreen at the great expanse of wilderness in front of the convoy, it swallowing them up into a new unknown journey now.


	33. Trouble in the park

**Three days later**

**August 18****th**

**San Francisco **

Now ever since the Sankiar had arrived into the city, there had been a great air of tension hanging over it and those within it. Notable among the list were the regular dragon soldiers and the Sankiar. The Humans here were caught in the middle, but were likely to be more towards the regular dragons who had told them of the aggressiveness and the brutality of the Sankiar dragons. However, most of this had been unnecessary as the Humans in the city had learnt a lot about them themselves. In fact, they had seen how aggressive they could be.

The Sankiar would often start fights or be really rowdy and aggressive to virtually everyone besides themselves. Even the regular army dragons would suffer from them. Thankfully, though, the Humans, despite having to put up with these soldiers of the invaders indefinitely now, at least they could be happy the Sankiar were not fully in charge. For one, the army dragons had told them that Sankiar were often very repressive when they were in charge and what with the history of different countries under oppression across Earth, it was something they feared greatly so, even though both these regular dragons and the Sankiar were of the same race and on the same mission, they would definitely prefer the army dragons to be in charge as they were a lot less repressive.

On the other hand, not everything was tense in the city. For one thing, parks had managed to survive the onslaught weeks ago and the citizens here could go there. Even the beaches were usable, though only certain lengths so as not to let anyone try and slip out. Also, much of the devastation had been cleared up by now and some groups of dragons and Humans were set about in rebuilding the residential areas of the city. It really did relax things within the city between the Humans and the dragons, though, again, not really with the Sankiar.

In one of the parks of the city, Oken sat with his back against a tree, leaning against it, looking out across the small sea of green around him. High in the sky above him, it was a partially sunny day with a few large clouds lazily drifting overhead. It was a beautiful day and he enjoyed this type of weather and this duty in the city. It was much better than going out to search for the Humans. That really did make him feel down because they were just not accepting defeat when they had virtually nothing left. He just kept asking himself: why were they continuing to fight?

"Michelle, toss it here!"

Looking up, he chuckled to himself as he watched Michelle and one of her friends, another young girl from the same part of Modesto as her, and her father play a catching game with a ball. Her mother was sitting on a bench nearby with Alex asleep in her arms, talking to two of her friends Wendy and Carl. They were having a good time outside as if...as if nothing was happening to them. It was as if the last few weeks had not been real and that they were just going back to their normal lives. Then again, following anything major that affected a lot of people, they would try and go back to normal.

However, all of this was affecting Oken. Not the game itself or why the Humans were actually happy despite being occupied by an extra-terrestrial race, but it was actually this fun as a whole. Just the way the Humans were going about this activity…it reminded him of his own wife and child, how he used to have fun with them when he was not on a planet.

Upon thinking of them, he sighed sadly and looked up at the sky as if he could see the enormous craft hovering over the Earth. Yes, it was still there and it was on there that the families of the soldiers lived, including his own. He really missed his wife and daughter and looking over at the Humans, he felt sad that they did not have a world of their own to go to and play and live on.

The truth was their race originated from the planet Kyzuakar, which was many light years away from Earth, around about the same as Alpha Centauri but obviously in a different direction, and hence why these species were known as the Kyzua. It was much like Earth and the Kyzua lifestyle was even almost the same as the Humans, the only difference was that they were ahead of Humanity in technology. Unfortunately, according to what Oken had heard, the lack of resources on the planet, notably food as their ecosystem began to diminish severely, had caused them to build the large diamond shaped ships, having only a few tens at the time, and then moved on throughout the galaxy and began to collect minerals and harvest the resources of mostly either dead or planets with no intelligent dominant species on them, until they finally constructed the enormous spaceship that hovered over the Earth right now, along with the hundreds more attached to it.

About his home world, though, Oken knew almost nothing. In fact, as far as he could tell, his entire life had been on that ship. Even when they had landed on other planets looking for the resources such as animal and plant life to harvest for food, they would be no more than a few weeks until they had to move on to another world and when he was on the ship, very little time of it was with his family. Most of it was wasting away months, sometimes even years of training and drills and such that he, and probably everyone else, could recite every little detail off by heart. God…it was just so…so frustrating for him!

Looking back down at the ground, he sighed again, trying not to get himself worked up about all of this. He just wished that his wife and daughter would be able to one day do the same as these Humans were doing now. Play in the grass and sit down and stare up at a real sky for once rather than an everlasting sea of complete greyness of metal or out into space, which was fascinating admittedly, but after a while it would be quite boring. They never really had a chance to sit down on a planet and see what it would be like to stare up at the sky from there. In fact, going down a planet would be a great experience for them because it had been years since they had last gone on another planet during one of the rare longer periods they were on there.

A loud bouncing like thud drew his attention towards the group. The ball they had been playing with bounced high into the air as it came towards him and, letting off a silent smirk, he held up his hand and caught and tossed it back to the others, where Jacob caught it. His daughter Michelle walked over to him and said something to her father, who glanced up at Oken for a moment and then nodded.

"Hey, Oken?" he called.

The dragon looked over at him. "Yes?" he inquired.

"You…uh…wanna join us?" Jacob offered.

Oken stared at him with a slight shocked expression on his face. What? H-he was asking him if he wanted to join in this game? He stared at the group for a moment, drawing a slightly worried look from Michelle, all of them hesitating to see what he would do.

Then, to their surprise, Oken stood up and walked over to them. "Very well," he said and before any of the three could even blink, he knocked the ball out of Jacob's hand and quickly darted off towards the side of the park near another tree. "Try and catch it off me,"

Laughing, Michelle and her friend ran off after him. Oken held the ball up high out of their reach and Jacob chuckled at his daughter and her friend's attempts to try and jump up and grab it.

"Pass it here!" he shouted to Oken, who brought his hand back and tossed it to Jacob, who rushed forward and grabbed it and threw it back as the girls rushed over. However, they saw through this trick and quickly headed back over to Oken. He raised his hand to catch the ball; when he saw Michelle in front of him with her hands raised up above her to try and catch it.

_I'll give her some help _he mentally said to himself.

Michelle stepped back a few paces, her eyes concentrated on the ball as it flew through the air. Oh, but it was too high and Oken was going to catch it again! It was not really very fair that her father and Oken were teaming up against her and her friend, they were a lot taller than them and-

All of a sudden, she felt two hands grab her by the side and lift her up, startling her for a moment but her mind quickly set itself back on the game. She stretched her arms out ahead of her and the ball fell into her hands. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that was being held about seven feet above the ground by Oken, who smiled at her and set her back down.

"Good catching," he commented.

"Thanks, Oken," she replied.

Nearby on the bench, Sally, Wendy and Carl watched the four playing their game with slight amazement in them. It really was a shock for them to see one of these dragons actually taking part in a fun activity with other Humans. It really was never expected of them; at least so far it had not been, especially as they were creatures not of this Earth. Then again, though, with the films of extra-terrestrials and the invasion by Gallaxhar last year seemed to have invoked and fear or hatred of anything not of this Earth by them as they just expected these creatures to want to wipe them out and use them for slaves and experimentation. That was probably why they felt more or less…well, to really explain it mildly…nervous…possibly angry even that this was happening.

"Is it ever a good idea to let him be with them?" Wendy asked Sally, who had her son Alex asleep in her arms.

She replied with a confused and worried expression. "Well…he hasn't done anything bad to us," she said quietly, watching as Michelle threw the ball to her friend and tried to avoid having it taken out of her grasp by Jacob. "I mean…he's actually…well, kinda looked after us ever since we got here,"

"For now he has," Carl said anxiously. "But what about the future? What if he decides to stop being mister nice guy and turns all evil?"

Sally did not reply straight away but looked down at the ground, a slight sense of fear filling her eyes. What if…they were right? Even though, admittedly, Oken had really looked after them ever since he had gotten here. He had sorted out paperwork and kept an eye on Michelle and made sure she did not get lost or anything, but…somewhere inside her she still had this feeling, this gut wrenching feeling that he might suddenly turn against them one day and…harm them. Probably even _kill_them! it made her shudder to think about but she just could not get it out of her mind.

Alex stirred in his sleep and she rested him on her lap, letting him place his head against her stomach as he snoozed on.

"Thought he was going to wake up for a moment then," she muttered jokingly, making Wendy and Carl chuckle.

"Catch Michelle!" Jacob shouted to his daughter and threw the ball to her. Oken watched as she ran towards a small hole in the stone wall that surrounded the park, arms raised to catch it. he chuckled to himself, but as she neared the wall the look of enjoyment on his face suddenly contorted into fear, and a growing anger.

Michelle caught the ball but fell over to the ground next to the hole in the stone wall, causing it to roll out of her hands, until it was stopped by a foot, a clawed foot. Sitting up, Michelle's eyes followed the foot up a kind of raptor-like leg to a heavily built torso and then to a face that held dark red eyes that were looking down at her with a sense of pleasure in them. She gasped under her breath, knowing instantly who these were, which she could also tell by the large dark green medal-like object fused onto his arm.

It was a Sankiar dragon. He was tall, about six foot four with almost blood coloured skin and a look about him that made Michelle shake in fear, and this was not only just because he was something that looked fearsome, it was literally _him_. Behind the dragon were two other Sankiar who had light red skin and lighter green medal-like objects on their arms. They grinned at each other in a way that told Michelle they were up to something nasty.

"Well, well, well," the dragon, who had stopped the ball, said, bending down and picking it up in his hand. He squeezed it tightly with his hand and it split along the side. Stifling a laugh, he threw it aside. "Looks like you are going to have to find a new ball," he said to Michelle intimidatingly, who began to shake with fear, praying that they were not going to attack her.

"Konak!" a voice barked. The dragon and his two friends looked up to see Oken walking over to them with Jacob following close behind. Sally, Carl, Wendy and Michelle's friend watched nervously from the side line, fearing for what might happen next.

The dragon humphed in an um-approving manner. "Oken," he said, displeasured as if he was expecting him to be here. _"Tyu si tomaken om?" why are you here?_

"_Erika Tiaken," _Oken replied. _They're friends. _He picked up Michelle and passed her back to her father, who pointed a finger at the dragons with an angry look on his face.

"You listen, you…you space dragon…freaks!" he hissed. "You stay away from my daughter!"

Konak chuckled, as did his two friends. "And what are you going to do about it?" he said mockingly, believing that this Human was no threat to him. After all, if this Human so much as struck him, he could have him killed or taken away, again likely to be shot.

He stepped forward towards Jacob, but Oken pushed him back, a menacing glare on his face.

_"Leave them alone," _he said in a calm, but firm voice in his native tongue.

Konak let out a single laugh as if un-impressed by Oken's actions. _"And what will you do if I don't, Kishan?" _he replied in a voice that clearly had no fear within it.

Oken clenched his hand into a fist, the urge to swing a punch at this Sankiar filling him like a water tank. He hated these members of their species more than anything else. All they did was cause trouble. Admittedly, they were good fighters, but when not in combat they tended to find or do whatever to entertain themselves, caring little if anyone or anything was hurt in the process. They were perfect examples of bully boys.

Konak glanced down at Oken's hand and saw his clenched fist, but he did not move, but readied his body for a fight. Oken was bringing the fist up to strike him, Konak bringing up his hand to block it…

"KONAK! OKEN!" a voice roared, making them jump.

The dragons, along with Jacob and his daughter and those in the park, watched as a tall and burly looking dragon, almost a seven footer storm over to them. He was very heavily built and his kin was almost the same as Oken's but slightly darker, meaning he was probably just under Oken's age.

"What is going on here?" he demanded as he reached them.

"Konak is causing trouble, sir," Oken told him.

"Then why is he hanging around with these _things_?" he snapped, glaring at Jacob and Michelle.

"What I do has nothing to do with you, Konak!" Oken growled at him. Konak glared at him and went to reply but the burly dragon stopped him.

"Alright, that's enough!" he barked. "Konak and friends, get back to your post!" he ordered.

Konak shot an angry look at the burly dragon, then at Oken, glaring deeply into his eyes to try and intimidate him, but it was not working.

"That's an order, Konak!" the burly dragon repeated, his voice dropping slightly to a whisper, meaning the danger was growing.

For a moment, Konak stayed where he was, a voice in his mind telling him to disobey the order of his superior, but if he did that then he would end up being punished, possibly severely as they were for Sankiar who disobeyed orders as they were expected never to ignore an order given out to them. Then, with a final glare at Oken, he turned and walked back across the road with his friends, heading down a side street that led off the road the park was placed next to. The burley dragon then turned his gaze to Jacob and Michelle.

"You go back to your family," he said sternly. Jacob went to argue against it, but Oken gave him a look that told him it was wise to listen to the dragon. Deciding it was best not to land them in any further trouble with these dragons; he nodded and walked back towards his wife and friends with his daughter, leaving Oken with the burly dragon, who now turned his attention to him.

"Oken, what is wrong with you?" the dragon said to him disapprovingly. "You do realise what could have happened there, don't you,"

"Of course I do!" Oken replied, annoyance in his voice. "I was protecting her-" he nodded at Michelle as Jacob set her back down on the ground and her mother asked her if she was alright after what they had witnessed.

The burly dragon was not happy. He looked questionably, but also annoyed, at Oken. "Protecting her?" he repeated. Oken nodded and, with a sigh through gritted teeth, the dragon hit him in the side of the head. "You need to stop this, Oken!" he snapped at him. "You are putting yourself and them in danger by being around them! Look at what happened just now! If I had not intervened, this could have gotten out of hand!"

"I know what risk I'm taking being with these Humans, sir!" Oken said angrily. He looked back over at them and his look seemed to turn sympathetic. "But they need someone like me to reassure them that they will be safe here,"

"Why? They are safe here, providing that they do not try and leave or cause a revolt,"

Oken sighed, shaking his head. "You will not understand,"

The burly dragon shook his head too. "I think at this moment, I do not want to understand," a pause hung between them for a moment as Oken looked back up into his eyes. "Now, if I were you, I would stay away from them. If you care about them that much, you will not threaten them with what had just happened," and with that, the burly dragon turned and walked off down the road. Oken watched him go and sighed, rubbing a hand down his face.

_They will never understand _he mentally said to himself, and it was probably true. They probably never would fully realise why he was friends with these Humans and that he saw them as such rather than as creatures that were viewed mostly as being defeated beings. Maybe one day they would, but how far away that day was he did not know. A week, a month, a year or two? He just did not know.

Heaving another heavy sigh, he turned and walked back into the park, picking up what was left of the ball Konak had thrown to the ground after ripping it with his hand.


	34. Ambush

**Two weeks later**

**September 2****nd**

Moving through the forest on an open road with a convoy was not what he had in mind, but for Saino, a tall dark red coloured dragon, it was just not up to him and he had to go along with it no matter how much he loathed it. As he sat on the top of one of the oval shaped trucks with a small kind of circular metallic barricade placed on the top, scanning the scenery around him, he could not help but feel a little nervous about where they were at the moment, especially with such a big convoy.

There were eight vehicles in this convoy including about four oval shaped trucks, two of the large heavy gun tanks (the same that had been ambushed in Afghanistan by the joint NATO and Taliban forces), one of the Sankiar vehicles and a buggy-like vehicle, though it had a large centre that was shaped like some kind of oversized cushion, which the back rose up a little and had a clearly visible door on the front of it, and two large triangle sections sticking off the sides, one on each side, where a dragon was sitting on them. On the top of the vehicle was a metallic panel and attached to the top of it was a long dark purple-like rifle with two half quarter circle, pink coloured parts sticking off the side of it. On the top these two pink coloured parts were hundreds of tiny ball shaped objects no bigger than a pencil point. Small they were and harmless they looked, but they could really do damage if they were fired at someone and they hit them. A heavily built light red coloured dragon was manning the turret at the moment, gazing out at the surrounding nature with suspicion as if he felt they were being watched.

The convoy made another turning down the road they were driving on, the noise of the engines of the vehicles and the rumbling they made along the ground filling the quiet air penetrated occasionally by the noise of a bird singing as it flew overhead. What they were doing was a patrol in the outskirts around the city called Portlandin the western part of Oregon. Believable or not, even though the Kyzua had defeated the armed forces of America and virtually driven them back everywhere, their so called Blitzkrieg tactics in wiping out Humanity's defences had left many small parts of the country under the control of so called guerrillas now and, as with any army wishing to fully control a country, they had to get rid of them, but such a thing was easier said than done.

For a start, Portland had been taken by chance only about fifteen days ago in August when the Kyzua just rode up here and marched into the mostly abandoned city, bringing with them several hundred Humans from the surrounding countryside, and just claimed it. Now, however, they were trying to consolidate their power by building a ring of small outposts and bases around the city in order to prevent any attacks from the resistance come undetected. It was kind of a resemblance to the situation the British Royal Irish soldiers faced in the summer of 2008 in Musa Qala in Helmand, Afghanistan in their war against the Taliban. Now, it was the turn of these extra-terrestrials to have to put with rebels on a planet they now seemingly occupied.

As they drove on, the dragons in the back of the oval that Saino was sitting on top of were chatting amongst themselves in their own language.

"_What has actually happened here in the past few weeks?" _one, a newcomer whose patrol here was his first, asked.

"_Not much," _another with a raspy voice replied. _"Except that there have been stories from the others about a large flying creature sighted to the east of here and then further to the west-" _( the way in which the convoy was going) _"-there's been talk of a Human convoy seen moving north from somewhere around that great big city co the south of here,"_

"_Isn't that the same that was responsible for what happened with one of the harvesters?" _a third dragon asked.

_"I think so," _a fourth replied. _"In fact, I am certain it is. I flew over this encampment they set up in this hill in one of our patrol ships a few weeks ago and they were definitely there the same day we lost it to an attack,"_

_"Wasn't Shona's brother on that harvester?"_ the dragon with the raspy voice asked.

The third nodded sadly. _"I felt so sorry for him," _he told the others glumly. _"You should have seen him when he returned. I led him away and asked him what was wrong and…he just broke down and told me what happened,"_

The other dragons exchanged sad looks. They had all heard what had happened to their friend at the harvester incident a few weeks ago and it was hard for them to even imagine how he was going through this grief. What was worse was that they knew their friends' brother had a partner and now he was going to have to tell them he was dead. It was hard to think about and they tried not to.

Meanwhile, on the top of the truck, Saino sighed and rested his head on his folded arms as he leaned against the top of the barricade, watching the trees of the forest in front of them whizz past as they went. Even though this was a patrol, it was unlikely they would see action out here, making it quite boring for him. He was one of the few in the Kyzua regular army at the moment who wanted to actually do some fighting rather than hope to hope that there would be none out here and they would all go back without any incident.

_Please something come along _he mentally begged, wishing desperately for someone to attack them so he could see a bit of action.

Unfortunately, they say you should never wish your life away and Saino's mental wish was about to come true.

Further on down the road in the trees, a figure moved, keeping low so as not to draw attention to himself from the dragons in the convoy. It was a young soldier of about twenty nine with short brown hair, green eyes and was holding a small radio in one hand and a camera in the other. He was scouting ahead for the other groups dotted along the trail to tell them to get into position as soon as he sighted any enemy craft. Now, coming up the road, was a vulnerable convoy. Eyeing it up, he saw that leading the convoy was the buggy like vehicle, which the army had given the nickname 'Raider Buggy', then behind that was one of the large tanks, which was known as a 'Predator' and then the Sankiar vehicle, known as a 'Land Carrier', then the four oval trucks, nicknamed 'Ovals' and then the second predator tank at the back of the convoy.

The soldier held the radio up to his lips and whispered: "Alright, guys, we got a convoy heading down the road: one buggy, two predators, a carrier and four ovals. All of 'em choc-a-block with aliens,"

_"Roger that," _another voice replied. _"Get into position and we'll give the word when to attack,"_

"Roger," the soldier replied and crept back into the shadows of the trees, placing the radio back onto his belt and picking up his assault rifle. Three other soldiers moved out from behind the trees and bushes behind him and crept forward alongside him, crouching down at they reached him so as not to give away their position.

Further down the road, another pair of eyes with antennae behind them peered out from a bush and looked down the road at the approaching convoy. It was Dr Cockroach. With him were two other soldiers. One was a medium height with black hair and blue eyes and the other was slightly taller with blonde hair and brown eyes. Both were armed with assault rifles and were crouching alongside the doctor, watching the convoy anxiously as it neared them. Just across the road was the third group, made up of Susan and two other soldiers. They too were hiding, waiting for the Kyzua to come near so they could spring their ambush.

It had been a hard few weeks for them. Ever since they had arrived in Oregon from California, they had had a rough time in trying to find a good place to stop off at. They were hoping to get to Mt Rainer near Seattle but the problem was that the Kyzua had control of all the major roads and now they were constructing outposts around major population centres, therefore making it more difficult to get to their destination quickly. What was making this even harder was that the vehicles of the convoy they had been riding in when they left California were now running out of fuel, having used up the little reserves they could get in the towns along the way here. Soon they would have to make the journey on foot and even though that was a kind of blessing in disguise as they could now hide from the Kyzua patrols and drones and such with relative ease and save them the trouble of having to hide vehicles as well, they knew that if they were to run into a patrol of something head on, then they were as good as dead, even with the monsters here with them.

Across the road, Susan's large blue eyes watched the raider buggy approach them, the dragon on the large turret on the back of the vehicle scanning the scene around him with two weapons, the turret and his eyes. One would do the looking and the other the firing. She crouched down, hoping to hide as much of herself as possible in the bush.

"You better get ready to transform, Susan," a soldier with brown hair next to her whispered.

She nodded. "Right, gimme a sec," she replied, also whispering, and she crept off as quickly as she could into the trees where a few large boulders were located.

Closer and closer the convoy came. It had some kind of effect on the squad because their hearts were beating madly like drums being played against their chests. Even their guns were beginning to shake in their hands. If they were spotted or if something went wrong in this ambush, then they were all as good as dead. The convoy passed the first group, who kept low and watched as the raider buggy passed first, then the large predator tank and then the ovals.

_"YURAK!" _a voice suddenly roared out from the convoy, the word in the Kyzuakan language meaning halt and, as if they were under some kind of mechanical control to the one who shouted out the order, the vehicles abruptly stopped where they were.

A tall but thin dragon in the front oval truck climbed down from the back of the truck, holding a weapon that was much like the normal rifles the Kyzua used, but was instead connected between two silver coloured spheres, the furthest one from him having a small silo-like hole on the front of it and the other sphere having a tiny trigger-like mechanism on the bottom of it. Two curved, dark green coloured metallic sections stuck out from the sides of the back sphere and connected to the front sphere's side. This was the Kyzua _automatic plasma rifle_, and it was a dangerous weapon indeed as it fired ionized balls of plasma that seemed to burn through anything on a living creature, whether it be clothes, body armour and even skin itself. Even though the squad had only had one encounter with a Kyzua holding this weapon, which had been when they were on their way up here and had literally only just escaped a single patrolling dragon, it was enough to show them how dangerous it was as it burned right through the metal of their Abrams tank when the incident happened.

As the convoy stopped and several of the other dragons got out of the vehicles and began to search chatter amongst themselves in their native language, some of them wondering why they had stopped, the soldier with black hair in the doctor's group took out his radio and held it up to his lips.

"Everyone ready?" he inquired.

_"Yeah," _

"_We're all set,"_

"Alright, on three," he ordered. The other soldier readied himself for a fight but Doctor Cockroach ducked down near the bush and stepped back a few paces. He did not really want to get involved directly in the actual attack on the Kyzua. "Alright," the black haired soldier continued. "One…"

Across the road, one of the soldiers looked over his shoulder and whispered:" Get ready, Susan,"

"Two…

Dr Cockroach held his breath, his heart rate going so fast it was almost as if he was going to have a heart attack. Thank God he was not taking part for he did not like using weapons. He never had done in the war back when he was Human and, unless it _really_ called for it, he would not be now.

At the convoy, one of the Sankiar dragons, who was heavily built, medium height and had a dark blue coloured metal-like object fused onto his arm, climbed down from the front of the carrier.

"_Dronar!" _he shouted to the regular Kyzua dragon captain that had halted the convoy. He walked over, a little annoyed, not having been actually been shouted for, but that he had been shouted for by one of the Sankiar. _"What's going on? Why have we stopped?" _the Sankiar dragon asked in his native tongue.

The captain went to reply when…

"THREE!"

All of a sudden, the trees next to the rock were blown aside as a huge boulder came flying out like a bowling ball being thrown down a bowling alley. The dragons on the raider buggy barely had time to even blink before it struck the side of their vehicle and sent it over the side of the road with a great crash amid a chorus of screams from those on board it. A hail of gunfire followed from the trees. Instinctively, the other dragons in the convoy either dived for cover or got out of the vehicles to see what was going on.

The Sankiar dragon and Dronar (the regular Kyzua captain he was with) hid behind the back of the predator tank.

"_Where is that coming from?" _Dronar shouted over the noise of the gunfire, bullets ricocheting off the ground and side of the tank near them. The sounds of blasts behind them indicated their soldiers were returning fire.

_"The trees!" _the Sankiar dragon shouted back, quickly rising up and firing a few blasts into the trees before ducking down again. _"We have driven right into an ambush!"_

_"WATCH OUT!"_

one of the regular army dragons that had just climbed out of the second oval truck down the convoy screamed.

CRASH! Another boulder had been thrown out of the trees and smashed into the side of the first oval truck down the convoy, the one directly behind the first predator tank where the two dragons were hiding, and tumbled off the side of the road into a ditch next to the trees, breaking in two. The driver and two of the dragons in the back were killed instantly. The rest, who had been rushing to get out of the truck, were injured by the fall from the truck, or being thrown from it, or had been in the way of the boulder.

In the trees, Dr Cockroach lay down as flat as he could and covered his ears as the two soldiers next to him fired away at the dragons. One of them fired a burst that hit a dragon on the top of the third oval truck down the convoy, the one directly behind the Sankiar truck, killing him instantly, his body sprawling out across the barricade.

"Hey doc!" one of them shouted and he turned his head to look up at them. "Are you gonna help?"

"Not in firing, I'm not!" he shouted back. "Guns have never been my sort of thing," he muttered to himself, ducking his head again and covering his ears as another burst of ammo was fired at the convoy.

Dronar quickly fired a shot from his plasma rifle and then jumped onto the predator tank, one of the dragons inside firing madly through a small gun hole on the side of the bulge on the back left of the tank, and rushed over to the back of the main cannon and pulled open the hatch.

_"Is the main cannon still operational?" _he shouted into it.

"Yes, sir,"

the driver dragon, who was sitting behind another dragon that was manning the main turret, replied.

_"Then fire on the trees!" _Dronar ordered.

Just then, a searing pain struck him in the back and he cried out, rolling off the tank to the ground. One of the soldiers from the second oval truck saw his commander fall and rushed over, grabbed him and pulled him behind the second oval truck.

_"Are you alright, sir?"_ he asked worryingly. _"Is it bad?"_

"_Well it hurts, idiot!" _Dronar replied, gritting his teeth tightly as he tried to move his arm to his back but it hurt in doing so. _"Where the-ARGH! Where is that Sankiar captain that was with me?"_

_"Alright, return fire!"_

a voice shouted from the carrier truck and the dragon who had saved Dronar looked over to see the Sankiar dragon that had been with his commander moments earlier directing his Sankiar troops, who returned fire en masse on the trees with blasts, lasers etc.

_"Damn typical!" _Dronar, who had turned himself on his side and was watching the Sankiar, growled, both out of anger and from the pain flaring up from his back. _"He can be so useless sometimes!"_

As the battle raged, Susan, now at her fifty foot height, pushed the branches of the trees aside, holding another large boulder in her hand. The two soldiers with her, along with the others across the road and further down the road, cheered. Her size would scare the dragons into running, unless they were completely fanatical.

"Go get 'em, Susan!" the blonde haired soldier crouched down in front of her cheered her on.

She nodded and brought back her arm with the boulder, taking aim as if she was about to thrown a baseball. Then, with an almighty grunt, she threw the boulder into the road, it bouncing off the dirt and heading straight for the carrier. The Sankiar swore and dived out of the way as the rock hit the vehicle and flattened it, sending it off the road along with an unfortunate dragon that had been kneeling down on the back of the truck and had not gotten off it in time.

_"Who is throwing…those…things!" _the Sankiar dragon who had been hiding with Dronar was shouting, only for him to stop and go wide-eyed, along with virtually all the other dragons in the convoy, as Susan emerged from the trees, hands on hips and a smug look on her face as she stared down at the dragons from her great height as if to say: _"Not so tough now, are you?"_

For a moment, the gunfire stopped as all eyes in the convoy fell on Susan. It was not hard to tell that the dragons were completely dumbfounded by the sight of this fifty foot tall woman standing in front of them. It was a very shocking thing for them to see this! One gulped. Another began to shake with fear.

However, the Sankiar dragon's expression quickly changed from shock to a glare and he fired a barrage of blasts at Susan. To her utmost surprise, when these blasts hit her, they hurt.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" she cried as she raised her arm to try and cover herself from the blasts that hit her body. Even though they did not penetrate her clothes or skin, they stung as if she had been bitten by an insect.

Upon hearing her cries, Dr Cockroach jumped up, his mind filling with fear. "Susan!" he shouted, rushing out to see if she was okay, only to halt where he was.

His shouting had caused the dragons in the predator tank, which the hatch into was still wide open, along with pretty much the entire convoy, to hear him and look towards him. Upon realising his mistake, he gulped as all eyes, and then guns, turned on him.

_"REI ILON!" _one of the regular Kyzua dragons roared. _Fire on him! _Dr Cockroach ran back into the bushes as a wave of blasts followed him. The soldiers ducked and pulled him into the bushes.

"What's the Hell's the matter with ya, doc?" the black haired soldier shouted at him. "You wanna get yourself killed!"

"Uh, guys?" the blonde haired soldier said in a shaky voice.

The two looked up at him and he nodded out to the road where the battle was still raging between the other groups. They looked out of the bush and went wide-eyed.

The predator tank's main cannon…it was turning…towards them! The end hole opened up slightly and a green light began to glow inside it.

"Oh shit! RUN!" the blonde haired soldier almost screamed, grabbing his friends and pulling them away.

A second later, the ground seemed to lift up from under their feet and the bushes and bark of the trees around them exploded. Dr Cockroach was thrown through the air and landed a good ten feet from where he was, having been stopped by the side of another tree. Groaning as he lifted his head up, rubbing the side of it, he gasped when he saw a huge gap in the edge of the forest. Literally, the trees that had been there, along with the bush, were gone. It was completely gone. In fact, all that was left was a huge hole about seven feet deep and probably just under three times across. Flames began to burn on the surrounding vegetation and began licking at the bases of the trees surrounding where the group had been.

It was then Dr Cockroach noticed the remains of an assault rifle lying near him. Only the tip of it remained, the rest having been completely destroyed by the blast. He picked up what was left of it, but quickly dropped it with a gasp as it burned his hand. Bloody Hell! What did these creatures have that was not powerful?

BOOM! The ground shook again and Dr Cockroach rushed to the edge of the road to see the trees near where Susan's group was hiding, she herself having ran back into them to get away from the blasts that had virtually torn apart the tree branches around her, be blown into smithereens. Large branches and bush fell, followed by a chorus of screams as several of the trees that had not been blown apart collapsed onto the ground. Susan, who had been revealed by the blast from the predator tank, quickly ducked down, grabbed the two soldiers with her, both of who had been hurt by the falling debris from above, and ran off.

"Retreat! Run for it!" a voice from further down the road shouted out, it being one of the two remaining soldiers from the first group, the others having been killed.

Dr Cockroach mentally agreed with the order and took off down the road as fast as his legs would carry him, hoping to escape from the Kyzua, who began to notice the fleeing the Humans and cheered.

_"They're retreating!" _one shouted ecstatically.

_"That is why you do not mess with the Sankiar!" _the Sankiar leader exclaimed, thrusting his gun into the air in triumph.

Nearby, Dronar, who was helped onto his feet by the dragon that had saved him, gazed about at the destruction of the convoy and up onto the third oval truck where a dead dragon was being carried down by his comrades. He sighed sadly, knowing that he had lost many good men here.

_"Aristokra help me," _he muttered under his breath as he limped away to be given some medical attention.

Meanwhile, the dragons that had been in the oval truck below where Saino had been sitting carefully lowered his body down onto a thin, stretcher and two of them carried him to the back of the truck.

_"Cannot believe they killed him," _one of them said in a low, but sad voice.

The others nodded in agreement. That was another friend of theirs gone, having been killed in this war that definitely showed signs of going on longer than they had anticipated.

On the other hand, though, Saino had gotten his wish to see some action after all, only it had cost him his life as well as many others.


	35. A change in friends

"Thanks, guys. We'll take 'em,"

In a small forest camp further to the east of Portland, Doctor Cockroach and Susan helped take the injured men to a small medical tent. A few marines helped them. Surrounding them were several other tents or marines standing on guard, their eyes searching the trees to make sure the Kyzua had not followed them back here and were trying to sneak up on them. In a slightly larger tent, Monger was busy talking away onto a radio.

The camp had been established a few days prior and it was one of a small network in this area. The enormous convoy that had broken up into different groups and was now spread out in tiny camps so as to make it harder for the Kyzua to find them rather than all stay in one large camp and present themselves as a good target for them. They had managed to evade detection so far but they knew soon the Kyzua would track them, especially after the attack today and they would be raring to get revenge on those who had participated.

As the last of the wounded was taken away into the tent on a stretcher, Susan walked over to a small crate and sat down, clutching the upper part of her right arm with her hand. Dr Cockroach noticed this and walked over to her.

"Are you alright, my dear?" he asked her, a sense of worry in his voice as he knelt down next to her.

"Ye-Ow!" she gasped, clutching her arm tightly, wincing. "Sorry, my arm is killing me!"

"Let me take a look my dear,"

Susan gingerly moved her hand from her arm and revealed to her friend a small hole in the sleeve of her uniform. Dr Cockroach clutched her arm gently just below the hole but saw from her face as she winced and gritted her teeth that it was hurting her. He pulled open the sleeve with his other hand a little more and saw a huge burn mark on her forearm with a kind of red swelling in the middle. It looked extremely painful and it probably was.

"Sorry, Susan," he said to her sympathetically. He looked around him, hoping to find something that would neutralize the pain. He then remembered the medical supplies they had. "I'll go get you some morphine, my dear,"

"No, don't, doc!" she protested, stopping him as he was just about to get up. "Don't! I-Ow! I'll be alright,"

Dr Cockroach was aghast. "But my dear, you can't leave that!" he told her. "It could get worse!"

"Doc, It's fine!" she snapped back, annoyance filling her voice. "Trust me," she tried to move her arm, but found it hard to do so and almost fell over to the ground, as she tried to get up, if it had not been for the doctor, who grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her onto her feet. "Thank you," she said to him.

He sighed. "Look, Susan, if you don't get that treated, it could become infected or badly bruised or something,"

"Look, doc, I don't want it to be treated!" she snapped at him. A pause hung between them for a moment before she sighed again, though this time out of pity. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that," she said to him.

"It's alright, my dear," he replied. "I just…I just don't want you to get hurt. You and me are the…" he stopped when he saw Susan's face sadden, not liking him referring to their missing friends who they still had no idea where they were or if they were alright.

"You two okay?"

The two looked up to see Monger approaching them. He had heard them from inside the tent and had come out to see if they were alright.

"Oh, yes, we're fine, Monger," Dr Cockroach replied. "We just narrowly escaped being killed when we sprung our little ambush," he added.

"Yeah, I heard," he said. It was then he noticed the hole on Susan's arm and saw the wound. "Jesus, Ginormica! You better go and get that checked out,"

She glared at him. "I don't need it to be checked out, general!" she asserted. "It's fine!" but a flaring pain from her arm made her wince and caused her arm to shake slightly.

Monger raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't look okay to me," he commented.

By this point, Susan had really had enough. "Look, you will cut it out!" she shouted, drawing looks from just about everyone in the camp. "I'll be okay! Just…oh!" she stormed off away from them into the trees and sat down on a small boulder, bringing her knees up to her chest and embracing them tightly, resting her head on her knees and staring ahead into the peaceful and calm woods that surrounded them, trying to allow the nature around her to calm her down.

"Don't know what's been going on lately with her," Monger muttered. "She's being a lot more negative,"

Dr Cockroach shot him a glare. "Monger, she's fed up with this. Everyone is!" he snapped at him, which shocked Monger.

"Doc, there's no need to have a pop at me!" Monger replied, his voice rising also.

"Well, I expected you to understand what she and everyone else is going through!" he hissed. A pause. "I guess I was wrong," and he stormed off away from Monger, who was left completely dumbfounded by him. He never expected the doctor to be so mad or angry at him. Normally, he was a very relaxed person.

It was obvious this war was changing people. It had changed Susan as she was now more firm and Dr Cockroach as he was angrier than he usually was, and that was _very _rare for him.

Even though Monger was not exactly a fortune teller or anything like that, he knew that if this war kept up or if something did not happen soon that did not turn the tide of the war in Humanity's favour, then the group looked like it was going to split up once again and right now that was the last thing he needed.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Monger walked off into one of the nearby command tents to resume talking onto the radio.


	36. Consolidation of control

**Meanwhile, in the Portland city hall**

Within the city of Portland in western Oregon, the few remaining people who had remained here now had to come to terms with the new arrivals from the surrounding countryside in the state and those around it. The Kyzua had, as they had done in most cities, set up a small electric plant on the edge of the city and got water running again for it, though it would not be enough to hide the hatred of them by the people. However, fear seemed to be the main factor that kept the population under their control, not only because of the Kyzua's superior technology and the way they acted, but the people here knew they would not win in a revolt. Partly, this was because the Kyzua could easily call in an enormous strike and obliterate the city but the total Human population here now was…tiny compared to what it had been. Before the war, it was around half a million odd. Now, it was just a few thousand, about four to five at the most and even though several stragglers were being brought in every day and that, as in most cities, the regular Kyzua and the Sankiar were mixed together here; they seemed to have largely forgotten about their rivalry. Not that they were becoming friends or anything, but with Human guerrilla forces just a few miles outside the city and causing havoc, they were more focused on killing them rather than each other.

At the moment, in the remains of the city hall, a large kind of U shaped building, with a half cylindrical entrance section on the front of the building, that looked to be like an old eighteenth century British building you would find in London, things were slightly crazy there at the moment. The Kyzua commander, general Kosian, who was a Sankiar leader, who had a violet coloured medal-like object attached to his arm, was standing over a desk, which had a small hole on it in front of him and a broken chair behind it, with a frustrated look on his face, both from anger and from pain where he had put his fist through the wood. A few other Kyzua Sankiar captains were standing a distance from him, all of them anxious to approach him. Then again, who would not be? He was tall and heavily built and had huge pulsating muscles and to add to this, he had a bad temper and was prone to suddenly becoming violent and aggressive at almost any time and when he received bad news, it was even worse to be around him in case he decided to throttle the nearest living thing near him.

Just moments ago, one of his captains, all of whom in the room had dark blue medal-like objects attached to their arms, had arrived and reported to Kosian, who had been in the middle of a discussion on how to properly defend the city, of the ambush on one of the convoys outside Portland. Upon hearing this and of the casualties suffered, Kosian flew into a rage, yelling at his captains and berating them for their failure in not catching or killing all of the guerrillas, and grabbed the chair that had been behind the desk and thrown it onto the floor and slammed his fist onto the wooden top of the desk, breaking through it, but also injuring his hand. His captains were waiting for him to cool down for they knew very well how much more aggressive he could become if they annoyed him even more when he was in this state.

For several moments, Kosian stood where he was, waiting for the pain in his hand to ebb away in his hand. The captains stood around him in a kind of circle, waiting anxiously for when he would be ready to talk to them again.

Finally, after about another minute or so, Kosian moved his hand and opened and closed it several times, wincing each time but the pain gradually faded away from his hand each time he moved it, trying to get the nerves back into gear. From where he had slammed it onto the ground, it was starting to swell a little and had gone a slightly dark purple/black colour, meaning a bruise was forming there. His 'outburst' would end up making it hurt for several days.

One of the captains, a dragon with a kind of light red skin, gingerly stepped towards his leader, but his body tensed as if fearing he would be struck by him.

_"Is…is it alright now, sir?" _he asked in his Kyzuakan tongue.

Kosian looked up at him with a slight glare in his eyes, obviously annoyed that his subordinate was oblivious to the fact that his hand was still hurting.

"_What do you think?" _he replied sarcastically. _"Of course It's not!" _he snapped back and heaved a frustrated sigh as he shook his hand slightly as if trying to shake the pain out of it. Although it hurt a little more, as was obvious to the others by the sign of pain etching across his face, it seemed to do the trick.

"_Ah, that's better," _he said in a kind of relieved tone. He looked up at his captains. _"Alright, continue with what you were saying," _he ordered.

Another of the captains, who was tall and rail thin, looking like he was trying to make himself a skeletal figure, stepped forward.

_"Well, sir, the guerrillas have escaped," _he told his commander, a hint of fear filling his voice, which was also evident in his body language as he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, as he knew his commander would be furious, but he pressed on. _"We have no idea where they have gone, but…we do believe that there is someone here in the city that alerted them to the convoy going out on patrol,"_

For a moment, silence fell between those in the room as all eyes were on both the captain and the commander, who was not taking his off of the Kyzua Sankiar captain that had just spoken up. There was no doubt an aura of fear was hanging in the air and some even braced themselves for the coming anger that was expected from their commander, mentally praying that he would not turn on them and cool down quickly.

However, to their surprise, he just nodded. _"Right," _he replied calmly, though the tone of his voice acknowledged he was still annoyed. _"Well them we will have to find him, or her, and deal with him/her before they cause us any more damage,"_

The captains nodded. _"Yes, sir," _they chirruped in unison.

Kosian then began to 'hmm' and tapped the middle finger of his hand, the one that he had used to go through the desk, and made a kind of pistol-like shape with the thumb and index finger as he placed them over his mouth, thinking of something that may be useful to him and his control of the city and the Human inhabitants here.

"_Thinking of it now, there is something that does seem quite useful to our consolidation of control here," _he said.

_"Um…m-may I ask what that is, sir?" _a third Sankiar captain asked.

"_I'm glad you have, Hitra," _Kosian replied, standing up at his full six foot ten height. _"What I'm thinking is that the Sankiar rather than the regular army are to have full powers in this city,"_

The other Sankiar captains looked at each other, slightly surprised by what their commander was telling them. Not that this had not happened before, of course it had, but…it was quite rare. After all, most of the civilizations the Kyzua, in their enormous ship hovering above the planet, had come across had been primitive, either because they had been that way for ages and were still advancing, they were respectful of their planet, sort of like the native Americans and Africans and Pacifica's had been in their homelands before the arrival of the Europeans centuries ago, or they had been forced to that position either by some natural occurrence to their planet or from space or through war, almost like many Human scientists like Einstein had predicted would befall Humanity if they were to come to a nuclear war. In fact, most of the advanced civilizations out of all the ones they had come across had been around Humanity's technological level, maybe just a little in front or behind. Humanity was the first one they had ever such fierce and determined resistance from as all the others had just either completely collapsed and given up, fled and decided not to fight or had fought but only to a certain extent and, therefore, that was why the Kyzua Sankiar were rarely in charge. So much so that an actual operation order had been put into place with a special codename to it, which was known **A113**, and it was to be used whenever the Sankiar were to be put in charge.

"_F-full powers?" _the first Sankiar captain repeated, stuttering a little.

Kosian looked at him. _"Yes, why?" _he asked threateningly, taking a step towards him.

The captain immediately backed down, fear sweeping over him. _"N-nothing, sir! I-I-I just thought…well, is it even worth it?"_

"Of course it is!"

Kosian exclaimed confidently, his voice cheering up a little. _"We won't have to listen to those regular army Kyzua commanders. Bah! I mean, look what happened today. I heard that Dronar was not putting up much of a fight," _he chuckled and the other captains followed suite, though this was probably out of intimidation.

"_Contact the High Commanders in the main ship fleet to the east of here. Tell them we wish to push through A113 in this city. That way, we will have total control and the Human threat will be over in a matter of days,"_

_"Sir!"_

the captains chirruped, standing at attention before filing out of the room. When they were out of earshot and walking down the corridor to the stairs that led to the foyer, the first and second captains began to chat amongst themselves.

"_I cannot believe he wants to pass A113 here!" _the first said aghast.

_"I know," _the second replied, equally as shocked, and even afraid. _"It could lead to a disaster," _he heaved a heavy sigh and rubbed his hand down his head, hundreds of terrible thoughts of what might happen as a result of this running through his head. _"I hope he knows what he is doing," _he added tensely.

"_So do I," _the first captain muttered. _"Though I don't know what the effects of this will be, I do know it will mean Tetra for the Humans," _


	37. Capturing one of them

**September 13****th**

**Colton, southeast of Portland**

In the winding streets of the abandoned town, Dr Cockroach, Susan and two soldiers moved cautiously with their vigilance levels at their greatest, hoping not to attract any attention from the Kyzua patrols lurking around this part of the state. The town around them was a real mess. Cars lay abandoned in the streets, some houses and shops had been broken into, fences and gates, some altogether, others in pieces, were scattered across the ground or in the road. A few household appliances such as tables, chairs, vases, curtains and even bits of floorboards or pieces of electrical equipment had been scattered all over the place, reminiscing that not too long ago, there had been a riot here in the hurry of the town's people to evacuate as the Kyzua invaders advanced almost unstoppably across the country in their bid to destroy the Human resistance and will to fight. Seeing this made the group think back to how lucky they had been to escape without any harm and not even imagine the terror that must have reigned in the air here all those weeks ago.

That terror had been hanging over the entire resistance army they were with. Ever since their run in with the convoy over a week ago, their foe had increased the patrols around Portland greatly, hoping to weed out any possible guerrillas they knew were lurking about in the surrounding countryside. This had made their mission to get to Seattle even harder and now they were going to have to stay where they were, moving about only when necessary or when they had the chance to without being spotted.

Whilst doing this, they were also consolidating their power in the cities, Portland of course being the first of these to do this. The Humans there were now kept under strict observation. None were allowed anywhere near the power plants in the city in case they were saboteurs. Radios and being out after dark was strictly forbidden, as was disrespect of any kind for the new rulers of the cities, and if there was any collaboration with the guerrillas, it was punishable by death and very recently, this new law had claimed It's first victim in Oregon.

The Kyzua had found out who they had believed was the 'spy' in their midst that was responsible for letting the guerrillas know of the convoy's route when it was attacked. A young man was taken out of his given apartment and executed in front of a huge crowd in the city centre. His wife and son were now being kept inside the apartment and all electrical equipment had been taken from them. Whether it was really him or not that was the apparent spy, no one knew because it was rumoured that several of the Sankiar and army Kyzua were growing restless in the city and the threat of violence against the Human inhabitants was growing greater by the day and so the leaders of the city may have decided to finally attack a random person, kill him and frame him for being the so called spy. Either way, if he was or not, it had calmed the Kyzua, for now at least and they had resorted back to patrolling the countryside, though this time they were mostly sending drones and robots out ahead of them even though they would not be able to do much and were more destructive than the ground soldiers were. As for his loved ones left behind after his death, who knew what fate awaited them. For now, they could be glad they were alive but the Kyzua would find a way to deal with them rather than just shooting them.

As the four approached the road, Dr Cockroach stopped and the others followed suite.

"What is it, doc?" one of the soldiers, a young twenty six year old with blue eyes and blond hair, asked.

"I heard something," he replied and looked up at the sky, his large eyes searching the mostly clear sight above him. A few clouds lazily drifted overhead, but they were the least of his concerns. He was certain he had heard something up there and with the way things were at the moment, it could only be one thing. "There must be a drone up there," he muttered under his breath.

The others began looking up at the sky as well, hoping to spot the apparent danger their friend was seeing, but they could not find it either. At around about this point, most people would decide that the doctor was being paranoid and continue on but despite them not being able to see the danger, the three dared not go on because even though the doctor was slightly mad, they knew that when he was spooked, they should be as well. He did not do this and ended up proven being wrong very often.

"I can't see anything, doc," Susan, who, crouched, moved up so she was alongside him, whispered into his ear. "Are you positive you saw something?" she asked uncertainly.

He nodded. "Yes, positive, my dear," he replied. "There was something I heard and it must be clo-"

"Look, up there!" the other soldier, a brown haired, green eyed man of about twenty nine, suddenly cut him off, pointing up at the sky. The other three looked and saw it.

A single drone was flying overhead in the sky. Even though it was far above the ground, the group could see the two points sticking out of the front of the main sphere and the glowing green eye in the centre as if it were the eye of the thing itself, searching for a target as it moved almost noiselessly through the air over the town.

"Good hunch, doc," the blonde haired soldier commented, relieved that he had warned them at the right time of this danger.

"Thank you," Dr Cockroach muttered in reply, though he kept his eyes on the drone as it flew overhead.

It began to turn slightly to the left, coming back in their direction, which raised a hint of fear within the four as it looked like it was coming in to bomb them, but after a few seconds, the craft had flown overhead and disappeared behind a crowd.

"Looks like It's flying in an arc," the brown haired soldier said, getting up. His brother was, or had been as far as he knew, in the air force and had shown him all the types of manoeuvres and flying patterns in an aircraft. "It'll be back soon,"

"Then we best grab what food we can and get outta here before it does," Susan piped up.

Dr Cockroach nodded and took a step towards the road, looking left and right just to make sure there were no patrols coming, and then quickly ran across the road, the others following behind him.

The shop they entered was like a mini supermarket with only a few isles stretching across the centre of the floor, two tills and cash registers at the front and a door at the back leading to the storage room and the rear entrance at the back. The shop was still in a moderately good condition despite the riot that had taken place here, though some parts of shelves had been broken or were leaning against the pillars on the shop floor that were helping to hold up the ceiling. Most of the food and water, as expected had been taken, the only things being left were the biscuits, cereals and sweets as well as several bottles of drink, most of which by this point was the beer or wine. Most of the usual household appliances that would be used for cleaning or hygiene were still left as well. Obviously the people here were not going to be staying in the same place for them to call it home for some time.

"Alright, we must be quick," Dr Cockroach reminded the group.

They nodded and headed off into different isles. He joined Susan in the middle isle and they began to go through the remaining packets of cereals and biscuits, most of which had been torn open by rodents. Only a few had not been and there was no need to say that these meagre rations would not go far in the movement they had at the moment.

"Not really much," Susan told him as she picked up one of the four remaining boxes. "But It'll have to do,"

He nodded and began to rifle through the biscuit packets on the shelf below. Only a few had been unopened and the crumbs from the biscuits in those that had been were scattered all over the shelf, meaning either they had been opened by someone hoping to get them and then dropped, or the rodents had gotten to them.

"I hope these rodents weren't infected with anything," Dr Cockroach said as he picked up one of the packets and stood up. "Last thing we need right now is people being sick,"

"Yeah," Susan replied, nodding in agreement.

Meanwhile, on the isle to their left along the wall, the blonde haired soldier was going through the bread and fruit on the shelves and boxes to the left of him, what was left of the beer and wine being behind him. What was left of the fruit that had not been taken had now completely rotted away to shrivelled and mouldy pulps. Almost all of the bread was gone as well and all of the remaining packets were opened, one having the crumbs of what had been a full bag scattered everywhere on the rack and on the floor, another sign of the rats and mice having gotten to it.

"Damn!" he whispered under his breath in frustration. "Won't be having a proper sandwich for a while," and he moved on, hoping to find something else.

On the other side of the shop, the brown haired soldier was having a bit more luck, not really food wise but more hygienically such as toothpaste and toilet paper. They were going to need both even though they were having to live without proper bathrooms and were going to have to make use of the nature around them now for water and soon for food and shelter. It was going to be hard for them as they had been so used to machines and technology doing this for them that people tended not to think of what would happen in the possibility of an extra-terrestrial invasion. Now, that very lack of experience and dependence on technology was making them pay the price through the cost of this war.

"I better get a basket," the soldier muttered to himself, pushing his arms laden with things up against his torso so as not to drop them as he stumbled off to try and find one, which he did on the floor near one of the tills.

It was then as he began to place what he had gathered inside it when he felt a slight rumble across the ground. He paused, his ears listening out and lowered his hand onto the floor. There! he felt it again, but this time it felt a little stronger and there was a slight boom that emanated from outside into his ears. A third boom, this time it was much closer and slightly louder.

"What was that?" Dr Cockroach asked all of a sudden, shooting up from the floor as he was searching the bottom shelves. Susan gave him a worried look. "I heard something," he muttered, though it was loud enough for her to hear, as he looked over towards the door.

"What is it, doc?" she asked him worryingly.

"You guys can hear it as well?" the soldier by the till inquired expectantly.

"Hear what? What's going on?" the blonde haired solider asked as he ran up to the front of the isle he was in.

_Boom! _It was much louder this time, and it had to be close because it made the shelves shake slightly. Even the cash registers fixed onto the side of the tills shook. All eyes turned towards the main door, expecting something to suddenly come bursting through to attack them. The soldiers gripped their weapons tighter, waiting to see what would happen. Several more echoing booms filled the air, each one growing louder than the last and the shaking of the tills and the shelves intensified. Even the very building itself seemed to rock on It's foundations. The entire group tensed, the soldiers keeping their weapons aimed at the door as they ducked down behind whatever cover was near them. Dr Cockroach began grabbing various items and quickly morphing and shaking them about to make them into some kind of weapon. Susan covered her hand with the ring with her other hand, waiting to take it off and grow to her giant size to fight whatever it was they would come up against.

Then, with an almighty thud as if a giant monster was going through the town, a huge metallic leg slammed into the ground just outside the shop. The shockwave was so powerful that it caused several of the isle shelves to fall over to the floor. Some of the wine bottles fell from the shelves and smashed onto the floor, covering the marble with the red liquid inside it. Upon seeing the leg, the four knew immediately what it was part of.

"We better hide," Dr Cockroach said, fear gripping his voice. "Quick, over here," he indicated to the fallen shelves on the left side of the shop, which lay against the pillar.

The four ran over to them and ducked behind them, keeping their eyes trained on the door, their hearts beating madly against their chests as if they were running a marathon. They did not know whether the robot was going to fire on the building directly or whether it would go away. Preferably, they hoped for the latter but with what was happening in this war so far, it was possible that the complete opposite might happen. They braced themselves, preparing for what was in store for them.

Two seconds passed…nothing came from outside. Three, still nothing. Four, okay now something was up. What was the robot doing? Five seconds. Was it waiting for them to come out by faking a halt outside the building? There had to be something going on here. The group looked at each other uneasily over what was happening.

"One of us should go and check," the brown haired soldier whispered.

"I'll go," Susan volunteered, rising to her feet, but Dr Cockroach stopped her.

"No, Susan, I'll go," he protested, getting up and placing a hand on her arm.

_HIIIISSSSSSSS_

The two quickly ducked down as the noise emanated from outside. They watched as the robot leg shook a little before stopping and then a medium height dragon, only about five foot nine appeared in the doorway with curiosity lingering in his eyes as he gazed around at the inside of the shop. He did not appear to have a weapon on him so the group could easily get rid of him when they had the chance.

_Looks like he's just a patroller _Dr Cockroach mentally told himself.

The dragon stepped into the shop, pausing for a moment as if he were an antelope on the African plains pausing to see if there was a predator around. His eyes fell on something that caught his interest on the right side of the shop and he walked over to it. The group watched him go and had to rise up a little from their hiding place.

What they saw actually amazed them.

The dragon stopped next to the alcohol shelf and picked up a small can of beer, opening it by using his teeth to pull off the pin. He gazed intently through the tiny hole where he could see the liquid moving about inside it and lifted it near his nose, sniffing it. Strangely…it actually smelt quite good to him and he took a sip, licking his lips loudly as the liquid slid down his throat. His eyes brightened a little with likeness and he proceeded to drink the entire can, gulping loudly. When he was done with that one, he threw the empty object onto the floor and picked up another, opened it and began drinking that one.

The group looked at each other with quite shocked and amused looks on their faces. Susan had to bite her lower lip to try and not giggle. The boys shook their heads, almost smirking as they watched the dragon throw down the third can and start on a fourth.

"My God," the brown haired soldier whispered. "I bet he's gonna regret drinking that stuff,"

"It'll be funny if he gets drunk," the blonde haired soldier replied.

Finishing the fourth can, the dragon wiped his forehead clean of sweat. Wow! Certainly, this new liquid he was trying was very sweet and very new to him, but it made him feel a little light headed. To him, though, he had a feeling that this was Human alcohol, not really that much different from their own, apart from theirs was not as sweet and not as hard hitting as this alcohol. He groaned, hiccupping out a small burp.

"_Oh! Uminoka Cuak!" _he muttered._ Powerful drink. _He reached out and took a fifth, opened that one and began to drink.

"We have to take him down whilst he's preoccupied with drink," Dr Cockroach said. "We can take him back and see if he can give us anything useful,"

"Allow me," the blonde haired soldier piped up silently, getting up and raising his weapon. The three winced upon realising what he was going to do, knowing that it was going to be painful, but it was better the dragon than them.

The soldier crept up towards the dragon, who had paused for a moment about a third of the way through the fifth can of beer, to take several deep breaths, completely unaware of the danger approaching him from behind. The soldier raised the butt of his weapon so it was level with the back of the dragon's head and stopped just behind him. He tapped him on the shoulder and the dragon turned around to see who was there.

WHAM! The rifle butt smacked him in the face with a crack, sending him back onto the shelf of alcohol. Several bottles of wine fell and smashed onto the floor. The beer can he had in his hand was sprayed all over his legs. Several more beer cans fell on top of him, covering much of his body. The soldier looked down at him and saw he was out cold.

"Nice one," the brown haired soldier commented as the others walked over, looking at their knocked out foe.

"Okay, now we have to get him back to the camp," Dr Cockroach said. "Question is: how?"

"Maybe, I could take us all back," Susan suggested.

"Nah, best not, Susan," the blonde haired soldier told her. "You might get spotted at your monster size and we'll be toast if you do,"

"Or…we could take the alternative way back," Dr Cockroach, looking towards the metallic leg outside. He bent down and grabbed one of the dragons' legs. "Come on, help me carry him to the robot,"

The others nodded. Dr Cockroach grabbed the other leg whilst the two soldiers picked him up from under the shoulders and began to carry him towards the door.

"Geez, his breath stinks of liquor," the blonde haired soldier said, grimacing as he caught a whiff of it.

As they passed the till, Susan picked up the basket of what they had collected and went to follow the others when she stopped and quickly rushed over to one of the fallen shelves.

"Susan, where are you going?" Dr Cockroach asked her.

"Just picking up one of these," she replied, holding up a box of painkillers and rushing back over to them.

"Why? We don't need them," the brown haired soldier told her.

"Oh, they're not for us. They're for our friend here when he wakes up," she explained. "I tell you, he's gonna have one big and painful hangover when he wakes up,"

The others chuckled at her joke and carried the dragon outside and up to a kind of platform placed on the ground directly below the main section of the robot where the neon green eye and rings were.

A few moments later, they were moving down the road back in the direction of their base, now having a new cargo on board. Hopefully, they could make full use of him.


	38. Learning of their return

"_Ugh! W-where am I?"_

A drowsy vision is what greeted the dragon as he groggily opened his eyes. Almost simultaneously afterwards, a sharp stabbing pain struck him in the head and he groaned loudly, feeling like his skull was going to burst open all of a sudden. His arms felt rock hard for some reason so he had to resort to an alternative but tipping his head forward towards the floor was not going to help him as he leant forward in the chair he was tied to, feeling like he was going to be sick but right now he was willing to do anythi-

Wait! His eyes shot open as if they had seen something terrifying. Realisation struck his mind like a brick wall. H-he was in a room with an actual floor! He looked down at himself and saw he was sitting on a wooden chair, with ropes tied around his waist and arms. Well that explained why his arms felt rock hard. He looked around him at the bare wooden walls and the just visible staircase in the corner of the room, probably meaning he was in a cellar of some kind. Where abouts was he, not obviously room wise, but location wise? The last thing he could remember was stopping off somewhere and then drinking some very delicious, but also _very strong _Human alcohol, and then he…he remembered going out. Why though? Surely Human alcohol was not that strong, right?

Just then, a door at the top of the staircase opened and he looked over at it, his eyes filling with a sense of fear, not knowing who this was going to be or what was going to happen to him. A group of figures appeared in the doorway and one of them flipped a switch. Almost as soon as the person had done that, like light appearing as it was described in Genesis, the whole cellar lit up from a series of old light bulbs dangling from the ceiling. They were all dim, but enough for anyone here to see clearly. The dragon looked up at the top of the staircase and saw it was Humans, well three to be exact as one member of the group had a huge strange head for some reason, who had entered the cellar. His eyes followed them as they walked down the wooden steps to the floor, all four of them staring at him.

As they walked over to him, the fear raging in his eyes began to grow quickly. Were they going to torture him? Were they going to kill him? Or were they going to question him? He even thought they might let him go, but quickly pushed that aside when he remembered that they were in a war and letting your enemy go just like that was a rarity in something like this and there was not really any excuse or explanation for why it should happen here.

The first man, an elderly, but heavily built man dressed in a high ranking general's uniform, stopped in front of the dragon. The others, one of them a blonde haired, blue eyed soldier, the second a woman with silver hair and dressed in some kind of uniform that looked to be like a fitness outfit to the dragon and the creature with the cockroach head and a Human body, stepped up alongside him, all of them looking at him with anticipation. The dragon's eyes momentarily glanced down at the blonde haired soldier's hand to see he had a pistol and seeing that made his heart beat madly, his mind thinking they were going to shoot him.

"Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way, Mr Alien," Monger told him, moving his hand in a kind of circular mode to try and get the dragon to understand him. "Do-you-understa-"

"I can understand you, thank you!" the dragon interrupted abruptly, stopping Monger mid-sentence.

The general straightened up, a little embarrassed by this but he quickly got back on track. "Well, then…I won't have to translate to you or anything what will happen to you if you don't co-operate with us,"

"Why should I-AH!" the dragon had snapped back, but stopped when the throbbing pain emanated from his forehead again and he gritted his teeth tightly to try and conceal it where it was. He sighed. "Why should I co-operate with you?" he asked, his voice a little calmer this time.

"Because I don't think you realise the situation you are in," Dr Cockroach told him, stepping forward towards him and kneeling down next to him, looking him in the eyes sternly. The dragon gulped, not really because of the doctor's intimidating look but because this creature with a huge cockroach head on a Human body coming very close was actually quite scary for him. "There are many soldiers above here who would like to see you dead, and I can guarantee you many of them will want to watch you die painfully rather than quickly,"

The colour of the dragon's face faded quite quickly from his face. Oh dear! If what the doctor was telling him was true, then maybe it was best if he co-operated with them and told them what they wanted to hear. After all, he did not want to die, he wanted to live. Then again, somewhere in his mind, he did doubt that even if he told the Humans what they wanted, they might kill him then and there. He was stuck between the two choices.

Another sharp pain from his forehead flared up again, making him moan in pain. God, it was making him feel like his head was going to explode. Right now, he wanted to rube his forehead with his hand, but with them tied u that was not going to be easy at all. The four in front of him saw this and Susan held up a small box of painkillers in her hand.

"And if you co-operate, we'll give you some of these to get rid of your hangover," she said to him. He looked longingly at the box in her hand, his eyes lighting up a little at the prospect of getting rid of this pain and he sighed.

"Alright, fine," he gave in. "You win. What do you want to hear?"

"First off, what exactly is it your species is here for?" Monger asked.

"Well…" the dragon began, pausing for a moment in trying to word it all, mostly because the alcohol flowing through his system was making it hard for him to think properly. "We are…Argh!…here because of your abundance of…n-natural food," he answered.

"Natural food?" Susan repeated, confusion reigning in her voice.

The dragon nodded. "Yes. In other words, trees…plants and…animals. What has been wafting through this galaxy…for many _centuriaks _is what you call proteins and…c-chlorophylls from the life forms on this world,"

The four earthlings in front of the dragon looked at each other with a surprised gaze. That answer really did surprise them. Usually, as with Gallaxhar's invasion last year, they expected the Kyzua would be here for Humans to eat or enslave or experiment on or for the Earth for living space or for It's natural resources. But for natural food, that was…completely unexpected by them. It caught them off guard!

"So…your stripping our world bare of all life, apart from us?" Dr Cockroach asked him.

The dragon shrugged. "With you and your kind, I don't know what we will do with you. Obviously, you will not be able to survive without trees but whether we will do anything about that or not, I don't know," he groaned again as another surge of pain swept through his forehead.

Monger 'hmmed' as he rubbed his chin with his hand, thinking hard. Well, they knew the purpose of why these dragons were here, but what about their militaristic reasons? What were they planning to do now?

"What about with your military now?" he asked the dragon, who looked up at him with flickering eyes, the pain from his forehead seeming to swell and grow worse as he raised his cranium. "What are you planning to do with your military, like your big ships for example? What about them?"

"They will be coming down over major cities to…drop our families here for a day," the dragon replied, quickly lowering his voice to a sad tone as he finished the sentence. _"My family," _he muttered in his Kyzuakan language, realising now he would not be able to see them because he had been captured. Oh, he was really looking forward to seeing them after so long on this planet! It was not fair.

Monger, however, quickly brushed aside the families of the dragons and began to try and formulate something in his mind over the arrival of these huge ships.

_If they're coming down soon, then we can try and take 'em out! _he thought satisfactorily.

Yes! If they could somehow destroy these ships as they hovered over the cities, then they could really put a dent in the Kyzua ranks. Possibly, though he doubted, but maybe, it might even cause them to retreat from Earth entirely, or at least come to a truce. Either way, it would put a dent in their enemy.

"Guys, come over here for a second," Monger said, urging them away from the dragon and turning his back to him. Dr Cockroach and the blonde haired soldier followed him but Susan stayed where she was.

"What about his pills?" she asked Monger, reminding him of their little deal they had made with him.

"Wha-oh, yeah. Okay, give 'em to him,"

Susan nodded and pulled out the plastic wrapping from the box and pushed out two small painkiller pills into her hand. She did not know whether two would be too many or too few for the dragon because their bodies did not act the same way as a Humans' but it was still worth the try.

"Here, they'll get rid of your hangover," she said, holding up her hand with the pills. "Open up,"

The dragon did as he was told and she dropped them into his mouth. His teeth crunched them together loudly, grinding them into dust and filling his mouth with a horrible, bitter taste that made him screw up his face in disgust as he swallowed and shook slightly, emanating a moan as he swallowed them.

"T-thank you," he said to Susan in a raspy voice as he struggled to get the taste of the bitter pills out of his mouth.

Meanwhile, the three men were engaged in a quiet conversation so as not to make the dragon hear them.

"Doc, don't you realise the potential this could have on them if we do this?" Monger told him.

"Of course I do, Monger," he replied. "But…but can it even be done?" he asked. "I mean, getting to them alone is going to hard enough, let alone destroying them,"

"We'll figure a way past that," Monger reassured him. "Look, just think of what this'll do to 'em. We may actually drive them outta here and off Earth for good. We can still win here,"

"General, if may ask, what good will destroying one ship do?" the soldier asked him. "I mean, even if it does work, they might just replace it with another and we'll be back where we started,"

"He's right, Monger," Dr Cockroach added. "Plus, they might start bombing everything outside the city, or they might take out their frustration and anger on the civilians,"

Monger sighed. "I'm sure they'll understand that ships can get destroyed and their comrades get killed,"

"I'm not talking about ships with regular army soldiers on them. I mean their families! He just told us that most of the ships coming down will have families on them. What if we end up blowing up one that has women and children on it? They might get very angry with us and kill all the people in the cities!"

Monger sighed again. "Doc…right now, that's a risk we have to take and just pray nothing bad happens afterwards. Now, we need to find a way of getting more Intel on these things." A pause hung between the three for a moment as Monger thought, his brain throwing any possible solutions to the problem to him. "And we may need to try and find more surviving groups across the world if we're really gonna beat 'em down,"

"How are we gonna do that, general?" the soldier asked.

"I'll think of a way. In the meantime…" the three looked back at the dragon, who caught their gaze and watched them warily, waiting to see what would happen.

**XX**

Monger nodded at the soldier, who quickly walked forward and hit the dragon over the head with his pistol before he even had time to cry out in fear, knocking him out cold.

"Let's get him out of here," Monger said as he walked over and picked up the dragon under one of the arms, the soldier picking him up under the other. The two began to drag him to the stairs, the dragon's feet scraping across the hard floor. "We'll let him go and return to his family," the general grunted as they began to carry him up the stairs.

As they did so, Susan and Dr Cockroach, who followed close behind, began to whisper amongst themselves.

"What exactly was it Monger was talking about?" Susan asked Dr Cockroach.

"Destroying several of these ships as they came down," he told her with a hint of worry in his voice. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "I don't know if this is such a good idea, my dear," he told her anxiously.

"Why? Won't this drive them away?"

"Probably, or probably not. Though, I do know that they will want revenge if we do succeed in this plan of Monger's,"

**Note: if any of you are wondering what _centuriaks_ means, it means centuries.**


	39. Family reunion

**Three days later**

**September 16****th**

**San Francisco**

High in the sky above the now mostly cleaned up and partially rebuilt city of San Francisco, one of the huge diamond shaped ships hovered just over two thousand feet above the ground, blocking out the sunlight to parts of the north of the city near the Golden Gate Bridge just above where the golf courses and the parks were. If the Pyramid building had still been fully intact, it would have just short of brushing the bottom spires that descended from the lower part of the ship, but now with the structure gone from half-way up, it was going to be very problematic for any hoping to climb up further if they wanted to reach the craft.

Having arrived over the city early this morning, on board were the families of the Kyzua soldiers, both regular and Sankiar, who were in the San Francisco area as they were visiting their husbands, brothers, fathers etc. down here on this alien world to them. The craft emanated a faint drone as it held itself in position like some kind of divine guard on duty over his piece of land to keep out any intruders. To the Kyzua, it was a welcoming sign of seeing their families for the first time in several months, but to the Humans, it was a reminder of who their new masters were now and a symbol of their dominance and power they wielded over them and just how deadly they could turn if they one day decided to obliterate the city and everyone in it. Exactly how many on board was hard to tell. Several hundred, thousand, possibly even several tens of thousands, they just did not know but it was obvious there was going to be a lot on there.

Gathered about in and around the parks were the many hundreds of Kyzua here. Some were sitting on the sides of the stone walls, others lying/sitting about on the grass or leaning against trees, their eyes trained up at the ship above the city, waiting patiently and anxiously for their families to come down. There were several small groups, obviously split between Sankiar and regular Kyzua soldiers, scattered about talking or chewing a kind of green stick called _Doshan_, which was much like the stick of which a lettuce piece grew on, only rather than eating it, they would chew one end for a few moments and then take it out and blow a small cloud of smoke into the air. It was the equivalent of a Human cigarette, but the translation of the Kyzuakan name to what the Humans would call it was actually a lot different because rather than calling a Doshan stick a cigarette, it was actually the Kyzuakan word for weed, something that may sound quite eye-raising to the Humans who happened to ask but it was not what it was thought to be by those who heard it for the first time.

Nearby, leaning against one of the trees next to the stone wall at the edge of the park, Oken stood, tapping his foot on the ground as he hummed to himself, glancing up at the ship every few moments to see if he could spot any large drop ship, spire shaped craft descending from it towards the ground. When he was not looking up at the ship, he was glancing around the nearby streets and around the park, watching all the other faces of the dragons here in the city. They were all different, some being engineers, others regular soldiers, Sankiar, guards or transmission workers, but all here for the same reason: to see their families, just like him. Oh, how he just wished the transport ship would come down now and he could embrace his wife and daughter as tight as he could. After all, months of being down here on this planet without his family was really quite depressing, as it usually was for anyone but for Oken it was particularly bad because he really just did not like being separated from his family for too long, not that anything had happened to him the past it was just something he was very reluctant to do.

Heaving another heavy sigh, he looked back up at the ship once again to see if he could spot any craft coming down from it. No, still nothing. Oh, this waiting was starting to get to him. He reached down to the grass next to him and picked up one of the Doshan sticks. Maybe this would help calm his nerves as they were also a kind of anti-depressant as well.

"Hey Oken, are you okay?"

Looking over his shoulder, Oken saw who the voice belonged to. It was Jacob. He was dressed in one of his old stripy tops and jeans with black shoes. Holding his hand was Michelle, who was wearing a small red top and trousers with small pink shoes, who smiled at him. Oken smiled back and got up and walked over to them.

"Hello," he greeted. "I didn't expect to see you two here,"

"Well, we daw the gathering and thought we'd come and have a look," Jacob told him. His eyes took in the scene of the many red dragons standing about around them. "Have to say It's pretty packed,"

"Yes," Oken replied, giving a small smirk. "Our families are coming back down to visit us," he told them, looking back over his shoulder up at the ship hovering above them. "I have not seen them for a long time,"

"Do you miss them?" Michelle asked as she tried climbing onto the wall. Her father helped her up onto it.

Oken nodded as he turned his head back round to look at them. "Yes…I…I do very much," a pause hung in the air for a moment. "It is not very easy coping without those you love by your side or at least nearby where you can contact them in a way."

"I can imagine," Jacob said.

Another pause hung in the air between them as they watched the other dragons around them talking to each other. One Sankiar dragon nearby told a joke in their native Kyzuakan and his friends around him laughed. Another two regular soldier Kyzua walked past the three, glancing at them oddly and them muttering to themselves, no doubt about them as they found Oken being with Humans very strange. Although it was not new that Kyzua and Humans would often chat, but becoming close friends like him and Jacob and his family was unheard of. Then again, it was probably due to the fact that Humanity was the first race the Kyzua had encountered that had put up such a fierce fight and were still a threat to them, maybe not here but elsewhere they were. Oken sighed again and his thoughts almost simultaneously went back to his family.

_Why must I make myself suffer like this? _He mentally cursed himself. He had to try and get his mind off them.

"So how is the rest of your family?" Oken asked them, trying to get them back into conversation to pass the time until the transports ships came down.

"Oh, uh, fine," Jacob replied. "Wendy and Carl are with Sally back at the apartment," he added. Another pause hung in the air, penetrated by the talking around them. One of the Sankiar took too big a bite of the Doshan stick on one end and he coughed violently, spluttering bits of the stick everywhere across the ground. Some of his friends chuckled at his misfortune. Jacob and Oken smirked and tried not to laugh as they looked at each other. "Little too much," he commented and Oken nodded.

"It is quite dangerous biting off too much," he explained. "And this stick is an anti-depressant," he chuckled. "Not really much good to you when it makes you choke," he added, laughing a little as he looked back at the group of Sankiar with the dragon who had coughed up part of his Doshan stick. Amazingly, they were back to chatting as if the incident had never happened.

"Hey, Oken?" Michelle tapped his arm and he looked down at her.

"What is it?" he asked.

"What's your family like?" she asked intently, but her father placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Michelle. You shouldn't really ask things like that to others," he told her.

"No, no. It's fine," Oken intervened and looked back down at Michelle. "Well…" he began. "My wife and my daughter…they're…they're much like all of us really," he explained. Michelle gave him a confused look.

"You mean…like men dragons?" she inquired.

Jacob, although he was not very happy about his daughter asking Oken this, had to bite his tongue and almost literally shut his mouth as tight as he could to try and not laugh. Oken, looked down at the ground for a moment, sucking in his mouth into his face, obviously slightly annoyed.

"No," he replied bluntly. "I mean…well, yes, they're all dragons, but…they are actually not red. They're blue,"

"Blue?" Michelle repeated and Oken nodded.

"Yes. Not a different mixture like us male dragons, they stay a kind of sky blue colour," he shook his head lovingly and stared up at the blue sky that had not been covered by the ship above as if he was looking at his wife and daughter among them somewhere. "It's a very beautiful skin colour they have," he muttered under his breath.

"Oh, so _that's _how you tell males from females in your species," Jacob said. "I've been wondering about that for a while, how you identify who's a man and who's a woman,"

Oken chuckled. "Don't worry, everyone who has also been guessing that has probably made the same mistake as well,"

"I bet,"

Silence fell between them again, but just as they finished speaking, a group of Sankiar appeared out from behind a building and walked across the road towards a small entrance in the stone wall. As they passed the three near the entrance, the Sankiar dragon at the back of the group glared at them and Oken glared back, their dangerous narrow-eyed gazes locking onto each other like predators competing over an area of food. Luckily, though, the Sankiar dragon moved on and looked away as the group disappeared into the crowd.

"Isn't he the one who you confronted back in the park?" Jacob asked Oken, who nodded.

"Konak," he replied. "Nothing but a troublemaker, just like all of the Sankiar," he looked over his shoulder at where the group of Sankiar had disappeared into. "Well, hopefully he shall get the message not to try and start any trouble with you a-"

"_Look, the transport is coming down!" _a regular Kyzua soldier suddenly exclaimed loudly in his native language and, as if the sound in the park had been turned off completely, the conversations fell silent and all eyes turned to the sky.

Coming down from the huge ship was one of the large drop ships that the Kyzua used to move their men and machines around from place to place. Almost as soon as it began to descend, the Kyzua outside the park quickly began to flock into it like an eager crowd all raring to see someone famous.

"You best steer a little clear," Oken warned them as the rushing crowds began to fill the park. Jacob nodded and picked up his daughter.

"We'll see you later," he said to Oken as he began to walk away.

"Bye, Oken," Michelle called, waving a little.

"Goodbye," he replied, watching them go as they walked back across the street. When they had turned the corner, passing another man standing on the pavement with something in his hand, he moved back off into the crowd.

Wait! Stopping where he was, he turned and gazed back at that man on the pavement corner. He was quite tall with blonde hair and was dressed in jeans and had a small black jacket on. What he had in his hand was some kind of small silver object, though what it was exactly Oken could not tell but that added to the concentrated look on the man's face as he stared into the crowd as the drop ship landed gently on the grass about a hundred metres away made him think that there was obviously something suspicious about him. What was he doing? Why was he here with something in his hand? Was he planning trouble?

It was then the man looked over and met Oken's gaze and, as quick as he had come, he disappeared behind the building behind him. Oken 'hmmed' to himself, still suspicious about him and mentally debating what he was to do. Should he go after him? He could do, but if he did then he might not get to see his wife and child because a chase might ensue and even though this man might be a threat, there was no chance he was going to want to miss this opportunity to see his family.

After a moment or two of pondering, he walked back into the crowd. "Just nothing happens," he muttered anxiously to himself.

As he moved into the crowd, he looked between the horns of the dragons around him and watched as the side of the drop ship began to slowly open up. Oken's heart was starting to accelerate in beating. He was nervous, but at the same time he hated himself for being so. After all, this was his family he was seeing so there was not really any point in being nervous.

As he stood there, someone accidentally nudged into him, almost knocking him over.

_"Sorry," _the dragon next to him muttered lowly.

_"It's fi-" _Oken replied, but stopped when he saw the dragon next to him. It was an old friend. _"Shona," _he said, surprised. His friend looked at him and Oken saw at once that his face was not really filled with any joy or excitement of any kind. In fact, he looked a bit sad, even a little scared. _"What's wrong?" _he asked worryingly.

_"Didn't you hear?" _Shona asked him. Oken shook his head. _"Kona died some time ago,"_

_"Oh," _Oken's voice dropped to a sadder tone as he watched his friend look back at the craft, which the side entrance to had opened fully now. If he was here and had told him that news, then…his wife Mina and Suki were going to be devastated when they heard. _"I-I'm sorry," _he said sympathetically.

Shona just nodded. _"It's fine," _

"_Here they come!" _a dragon somewhere nearby exclaimed. Oken looked back over and his eyes lit up like a star.

Exiting the ship was a large crowd of dragons, but these ones, as Oken had described to Jacob and Michelle, were mostly a crystal blue colour and were thinner and shorter than the red dragons in the crowd. With them were several smaller dragons that were about half of the height of the taller blue dragons and some of them also had blue skin whilst others were red, showing that they were children and who was male and who was female out of them. There were several hundred of them and almost as soon as some of them left the drop ship, the child dragons ran out of the crowd of blue dragons over to the crowd of red dragons, who also moved forward and began embracing their loved ones among them. Very quickly, the crowd of blue dragons joined the children and were hurrying to try and reunite themselves with their husbands, brothers or fathers.

Oken moved about through the now mixed crowd of different coloured dragons, now searching the many faces of the crowd to find his wife and daughter. Several times, he had stop in his tracks as he searched as a child ran in front of him or past him and into the arms of their parents, greatly overjoyed in seeing them again for the first time in ages. Oken would smile when he saw this, even when it was a Sankiar embracing his wife and/or child, and this would only make him more determined to find his family so the same thing could happen to him. Problem was: he had to find them first.

_"Oken!"_

He stopped dead where he was. He knew that voice and he began to frantically search the crowd around him, whipping his head from side to side in trying to find the source of that voice. It was his wife! She was near! Oh, where was she?

_"Oken! Oken!"_

"_Father!"_

Oken looked behind him and saw two crystal blue dragons coming towards him. Both were shorter than him but were about the same height as each other. It was his wife Tesha and his daughter Lina. As soon as he saw them, Oken rushed forward and embraced them both tightly, exhaling deeply with relief as they met.

_"I'm so glad I can see you!" _he said as his wife buried her face into his neck, sobbing happily. His daughter rested her head on his shoulder.

_"I missed you, father," _she said.

_"I missed you too," _he replied, withdrawing from them. _"Both of you," _he added, blinking away tears in his eyes.

His wife and daughter smiled at him. To him, they were both beautiful creatures. Their skin was smooth, eyes sparkled like the stars of space and they were just heavenly to him. Both of them were caring and loving, his daughter especially because she was eighteen and a carer back on the main ship high above the planet, helping those who had suffered something devastating, which was mostly the loss of a relative during an attack on a planet. She was also a bit of an artist, something she had inherited from her mother, because she would make things out of scrap metal or bits of wood or wool and such that were brought up, or in some cases smuggled, by her father as souvenirs and things he just found and took from some of the planets they had been on in the past. Oken always admired his daughter's work and her creativity, but he himself was never really that creative. Last time he tried making something just as artistic as his daughter, it broke apart in a kind of cartoonish fashion as soon as he was finished. Plus, with him being away large parts of the time, even when the ship was not attacking another planet, there was little time he could spend with his family so he never really had anything to be creative about. It may sound bad but then again, this was their way of life, something that was going to be hard to change.

"_We were worried for you," _Tesha said to him, her voice filled with relief. _"We were worried that something might have happened to you,"_

_"Don't worry, nothing is happening here much. Most of the fighting is taking place to the far north and south of here,"_

_"Oh, that's good," _Lina breathed with relief. _"What are the Humans like?" _she asked curiously as she began to gaze around at the city around the park.

_"Well…the ones I have spoken with so far are very friendly," _Oken answered as he let go of his wife and daughter. _"It is a man with his wife and two children, one of whom I get on very well with,"_

_"Wow!" _Tesha piped up, amazement in her voice. _"I'd like to meet some Humans,"_

_"You might be able to," _her husband told her, but with uncertainty lingering in his voice. _"That is…if the leaders of the city allow you to wander," _

Tesha nodded. It was true. Even though the city was virtually under their control, sending the families of those out onto the streets where there was a chance of any hostilities among some of the city inhabitants was not a very good idea. At least, not without protection it was not.

It all looked well for Oken. His family was here and they were glad he was safe, as he was with them. It was, without a doubt, the greatest thing that had happened to him so far in this war. If only it would last forever, or if this war ended right now, then it would make it that much more perfect.

However, nearby it was a completely different story. A tall, heavily built dragon approached a crystal blue dragon that was about five feet six tall and looked to be, in Kyzuakan terms, in her middle thirties. With her was another crystal blue dragon that was her daughter, who was slightly taller than her but looked a lot like her mother, the only difference about her herself wad that she was about sixteen in Kyzuakan terms. The mother's name was Mina and her daughter's, Suki.

The tall, male dragon stopped in front of them and held up his hand to them, muttering something to them but it was blocked out by the noise of the crowd. Mina took the object and pressed something on the side of it and the surface of the object lit up a kind of silver haze for a moment. Then, when the haze disappeared, the surface of the object was filled with a photograph of three dragons standing in a row with the middle one, a male, with his arms around the two females either side of him. The two blue dragons were Mina and Suki and between them was Mina's husband and Suki's father, Kona, all of them smiling at the camera and taking the picture was Shona.

Until about a month ago, these three had been a great family and had gotten on well with each other, as had Shona with his brother's family, but then he had been taken from them when he had been on a harvesting craft and it had exploded as the result of C4 charges attached to the trees it was pulling out of the ground, killing him and those on board as well as two of the three dragons that had been on the ground. Shona had been the only survivor and now he had to do the heart-breaking task of revealing to Mina and her daughter where Kona was.

_"W-where is Kona, Shona?" _Mina asked fearfully, looking at him with a gaze as equal as the emotion in her voice.

Shona looked down at the grass for a moment, unable to meet her demanding gaze. How could he tell her? He knew what would happen, just as it would with anyone who had to be told a member of their family was gone and not coming back to them. It was heart wrenching, but…it had to be done.

He just looked up at her sadly and shook his head.

Almost at once, just as he predicted, Mina collapsed and Shona grabbed her and embraced her tightly as she sobbed against his shoulder. Gently he caressed her back and held out an arm for Suki, who embraced him tightly as well, tears running down her face and gasping deeply to try and calm herself, but it was no use and she ended up resting her head against her uncle's chest as she cried. The saddest thing was: all Shona could do was comfort them when he felt the very same way as them, that he would no longer see his brother with his family anymore, something he had feared deeply and now it had come true.

How much worse could this become for them?

Meanwhile, on one of the streets nearby, the man who Oken had seen on the street corner a few minutes earlier watched the gathering from the entrance to an alleyway, keeping himself hidden under the shadows of the buildings so as not to draw any attention from any Kyzua that might look over and see him. In his hand was a small camcorder which he had used to take a recording of the arrival of the drop ship and the female and young Kyzua dragons. It was all going to be useful for the guerrillas.

"Aaron!" a voice hissed from nearby and he looked behind him up the street to see another man about the same height as him running towards him. He had black hair, blue eyes and was wearing glasses and was dressed in a small brown top with jeans and a pair of his old trainers. "What are you doing, man? Don't you realise how dangerous this is what you're doing?"

"Of course, but I'm willing to do this to help our people in the war effort against these dragons," he replied, whispering as he looked back at the park.

Daring it was what he was doing, but in his mind he knew his friend was right about this being dangerous. If any of the Kyzua saw him, he could expect severe punishment, especially if it was one of the Sankiar, who would be all too glad to put a few blasts into him and to give off another example of their dominance in this city over their Human subjects. Then again, as he said, he believed it was worth the risk to help his own species in the war effort against these extra-terrestrials.

"C'mon, let's get outta here," he whispered to his friend and they quickly rushed off back up the road as quickly as they could go, hoping no one would see them. "I need to get this Intel out to them," he told his friend as they ran back up the road.

"I hope you know what you're doing," his friend replied worryingly.


	40. The plan

**Four days later**

**September 20****th**

Deep within the forest of the Oregon state near the Mt Hood motorway, in a small camp hidden by the trees, the convoy total of about eighty soldiers and Susan gathered around a small makeshift projector that Dr Cockroach had made out of several parts of an old vehicle they had found lying by the road yesterday, which he added to his radio, which he had made from several toy ones found in a house nearby, having belonged to the youngsters that lived there, and both were proving to be very useful to them. With the projector, Dr Cockroach and Monger could show any images of any new information sent to them, but the most effective, obviously, was the radio, for Dr Cockroach could send messages to and from anyone who might still have a working radio and he had actually established contact with a hidden underground resistance force somewhere in San Francisco. They had sent out information several days ago of a huge family gathering in the city. What was more, they had also reported that from other major areas such as Los Angeles, Mexico City, Dallas and even as far west as Tampa and Key West, the same thing was happening. With the rest of the world, they did not know, but with the same thing happening across the country, it was bound to be happening everywhere else. This was a perfect opportunity to strike back that Monger had been talking about a few days ago.

Question was: how do they do it?

At the moment, Dr Cockroach and Monger were standing either side of a large makeshift tarpaulin that had a projected image of one of the large ships hovering over San Francisco city. It had been photographed by a member of the underground resistance in the city and sent to them via mobile phone, which Dr Cockroach had picked up on the radio as he had made it so it could act like a mobile phone as well as a radio. However, the group did not know much about the crew of the ship and what exactly it was doing, aside from being there for the enormous family reunion between the Kyzua, because these messages were often dangerous to send. It was not the sending of the message itself, but the Kyzua always had special radio transmitters out in hidden locations in the city and they picked up any change in the frequency of the invisible waves moving to and from each city under their control. If they happened to find a change in the usual frequency, then they would quickly pinpoint the exact location of it and soldiers would be quickly sent to apprehend or kill whoever were the one(s) causing the change.

"As we can see on this next picture," Dr Cockroach was saying as he pressed a button on the side of the projector and the picture changed from a view of the ship to a picture of a large crowd of the different coloured Kyzua dragons. "The reunion that we believe is taking place across the world is happening in the city as well, so the Kyzua are going to be on their highest guard everywhere.

He pressed the button on the side of the projector again and the next picture came on. It was of a huge kind of gun emplacement that had a large spherical main section attached to three C-like shaped mechanical legs that were attached to a large metallic square shaped object on the ground. Three large turret silos stuck out of the front of the spherical section. The picture must have been taken from a window because of the brick walls just visible on the left and right edges of it, showing that the turret was placed on the dockside next to the remains of what had been a dock warehouse that had been left to crumble by the Kyzua. The neighbouring buildings of the city were just visible in the background of the picture. Seeing it made some of the men gulp. Even Susan, who was sitting at the front with crossed legs, felt a little worried about a weapon like that.

"As we can see this turret is particularly deadly," Dr Cockroach explained. "And so anyone getting into the city will be killed very easily,"

"So…we're not going there…right?" a young soldier near the back of the large audience piped up nervously.

"Well, not to this city we aren't," Dr Cockroach told him, though his voice was less than reassuring, meaning that even though San Francisco was not their target, likely for the obvious reason that it was too far south and trying to move about ninety men, two monsters and a huge amount of equipment and vehicles was not going to be easy in the slightest, that did not mean they were not going to be sitting back and waiting to see what would come out of this attack. "We'll be going to Portland," he told them, adding to his point by clicking another picture onto the screen, which showed a picture taken from a rooftop of a small house showing downtown Portland city with another huge ship hovering above it.

The soldiers exchanged nervous glances with each other. So they were going into an attack on Portland. Well, that in itself was just as suicidal as an attack on the ship in San Francisco would be, the only thing that made it sound more suicidal was because they did not know anything about the Kyzua and the defences they had there in the city, but knowing the doc, he was likely to tell them.

"Now, Monger has formulated a plan for us and he'll tell you what it is," Dr Cockroach said, stepping back a pace as Monger stepped forward, both acting like actors on a stage, though this time the stage was not fake, it was real.

"Alright, as the doc has explained, we'll be going into Portland," he explained. "Our objective is to destroy the ship there and deliver a winding blow to the aliens,"

"Destroy one of the ships?" the soldier sitting next to Susan exclaimed, aghast. "But…sir, that's just pure suicide!"

"You're correct on that, soldier," Monger replied. "And there are ups and downs to this mission," he added. "Portland doesn't have as many turrets as San Francisco, so getting in without being mown down by any heavy weaponry shouldn't be too much of a problem. However, they have more soldiers there and they're more on alert because as we obviously know, we're harassing their forces. Plus, we don't have nowhere near as much inside Intel on the city because the aliens have taken away all the radios and mobile phones and such. In fact, this picture of the ship-" he pointed at the photograph of the Kyzua ship hovering over Portland. "-was taken by a guy who had tried to do a little reconnaissance of the city and he managed to send it to us…" his voice began to drop a little to a sadder tone. "Before they found him and…" he trailed off but the others knew what he meant, only adding to the seriousness to this mission they were being briefed on.

"Anyhow," Monger continued, getting back to the mission. "Despite the lack of intelligence and support we can have from inside the city, we can use this to our advantage," the groups' eyes lit up a little when he told them this and they were eager to know how they could use an obstacle to their own advantage. "Now, the aliens'll be expecting something to happen at any moment and so, as I explained with the taking of this picture, as soon as there's trouble, they'll rush out to quickly stop it before it gets outta hand. And this is where the majority of you all come in,"

Upon hearing these words, some of the faces of the soldiers lost all their colour, others gulped or exchanged worried glances with those next to them, the fear of what their task in all of this was gripping them like a giant invisible hand.

"Most of you are to create a distraction. If you can draw the aliens away long enough and far enough, then a small group will be able to get up into the ship and, using explosive devices, will destroy the internal systems and blow the thing to kingdom come!" he clapped both of his hands together behind his back and smiled. "Sounds simple enough, doesn't it,"

"It does sound simple, general," Susan said, though there was an uncertain tone lingering in her voice. "But…there are a few problems. Firstly: how do we get up to the ship in the first place?"

"S'pose doc'll build something to get us up there," one of the soldiers suggested and suddenly all eyes fell on the cockroach headed man, but, unexpectedly, he shook his head, but not sombrely, rather he seemed quite happy about it.

"Nope," he replied, his voice a little cheerful. "We're going up there, not through jetpacks or specially made craft. In fact, It's a method of transportation that seems very unlikely to get the job done,"

Before anyone could ask, he reached behind the tarpaulin and pulled out something that made the soldiers and Susan emit confused looks and mutters of "What!" and "How is that gonna help us?" but the doctor remained just the same.

What he was holding was in fact a balloon.

"A balloon?" Susan piped up, a confused expression setting in across her features. "Why have you got a balloon, doctor?" she asked him.

"I'm glad you asked, my dear," he replied. "You see, our enemies will be expecting us to attack with full scale fighter jets or something that I have made up and with a huge army," he explained. "Well, with our smaller numbers and these balloons, as we have more to inflate, we can easily, as Monger explained, sneak on board quickly without giving them time to adapt to this new fighting technique, destroy what we need to destroy and then blow the ship up,"

The soldiers in front of them began to understand all of this now, which he and Monger could tell by some of them nodding their heads and giving positive comments about it. Then, one of the soldiers, who Dr Cockroach immediately recognized as Andy, stood up, but he had an uncertain look on his face.

"It's a good plan, doc," he stated, drawing all eyes to him as if he was someone asking a question at an inquiry or during a meeting. "But there's one thing we need to know. Who's gonna go on board the ship?"

That question struck Dr Cockroach and Monger like a sledgehammer. Yes! They had not picked out a team that would go on board the ship and blow it up. That was going to be a hard decision because even though Dr Cockroach was going on board it, no one else had done so as well, but then again no one else had been told about it so it was kind of a late ordeal.

"Well," Dr Cockroach said after a few moments of silence, his mind blank with the question that had been asked him. "I'm going, but who wishes to go with me?" he asked.

For a moment, heads turned left, right and looked over shoulders to see if anyone would raise their hand or stand up and announce they would go with him. Then, Susan stood up.

"I'll go with you," she said.

"Same here," Andy piped up.

Dr Cockroach nodded. "Anyone else?" he inquired.

Two other soldiers stood up but no one else did afterwards.

_Five. _Dr Cockroach mentally said to himself. _Not exactly a suitable number for a strike force for this kind of mission, but it will have to do._

In a way, though, maybe five was a good number for this team. It would mean less worry over having to make sure nothing went wrong and it would be easier for them to stick together when they got on board the ship. Still, though, five soldiers going into an extra-terrestrial ship that was bound to be full to bursting with Kyzua was extremely suicidal and Dr Cockroach knew that they could all lose their lives in this. Then again, they almost had one year ago so that did ease him a little that if they had boarded an extra-terrestrial ship once and destroyed it, then they could do it again.

Monger cleared his throat. "Alright, you have your know-how of the mission. Dismissed!"

The soldiers began to clear away from the clearing and Monger turned to Dr Cockroach, who was joined by Susan.

"We best start inflating the balloons," he said to the bug headed scientist.

Dr Cockroach nodded. "I'll be with you in a moment, Monger," he told him. The general nodded and walked over to the tarpaulin to get it down from the branch of the tree it was dangling off of, leaving the two monsters alone.

"Susan," Dr Cockroach said anxiously to her. "Are you sure you want to go through with this?" he asked her.

"Yes," she replied with a slight firm tone. "Doc, I don't want you going up there on your own. I mean, what if you get trapped or hurt and all the others with you get captured or killed? You'll need me,"

Dr Cockroach sighed. "Susan, I'm glad you're worried about me and I appreciate it, but…I'm worried about your safety. You know what happened last time you went on board Gallaxhar's ship, don't you," he reminded her.

She nodded lowly. Gallaxhar had taken the quantonium from her body, making her small again, and had almost killed her last year when she was beamed onto his ship. It was only by the grace of luck that her friends had been able to get on board and save her, and thus save the Earth, and destroy Gallaxhar's ship, achieving victory for Humanity.

But this time…this time, these invaders were much more violent, they were more of them and they were very, very clever. What was more, with family reunions occurring everywhere, there was no doubt that if the team posed a threat to their women and children, then they would fight tooth and nail to protect them. All of that just added to the possibility that they could die and this entire mission would fail.

"There's one thing I need to ask, doc," Susan said to him. "When does this mission begin?"


	41. Sending the message

**Meanwhile across the world**

Whilst guerrilla fighting had been taking place in America, across the globe others had been carrying out their own fight against the invading Kyzua and this adding up of resistance on a global scale was proving to be a big headache for the invaders. Whether it was espionage, sabotage, assassination or raids, they were all taking their toll on the Kyzua, though, overall, it was doing little to push them off the planet, probably because of their overwhelming numbers, the huge amount of resources that were available to them and probably added with the fact that the families of the soldiers had arrived down here and they were not going to be prepared to move them back all of a sudden after spending months without them.

Unfortunately, for Humanity, the Kyzua also had an advantage of their own that their enemy knew very well. They had cities still full of people inside them and as long as they were there, they were in grave danger. The guerrillas around the world knew very well that they had to tread carefully with their attacks and not go too far because they knew the Kyzua would exact a bloody revenge on them. Their only chance was to hope that either the invaders would eventually decide to leave Earth or that they could strike a blow against the Kyzua so devastating that it would cause them to leave or, at the very least, come to a deal with them to free the people in the cities. Then, at least then, the guerrillas could really begin to step up their attacks on the Kyzua and, ultimately, drive them from their world.

However, the guerrillas did not know which would come first because with the sudden arrival of the families of the Kyzua, there was a stepping up of their attacks and securing of the countryside as well as searching any suspicious areas of the cities they occupied; obviously meaning they were taking no chances in allowing any local resistance to exist in case it threatened their families. If it stayed this way for a while, then there would be no chance of them launching a fatal, or at least a really devastating blow to them.

All that, though, was about to change.

**Southern Scotland, south of Edinburgh**

Within the hills and fields of the Scottish countryside, the remnants of the British army in the north of the country had based themselves. Several other smaller outposts and hideouts were located in other parts of Scotland and in the northern parts of England to the south, all of them keeping an eye on the progress of the Kyzua as they consolidated their control on the neighbouring cities and the surrounding countryside and causing havoc to them at any opportunity. Recently, though, their resources were being stretched because of the lack of munitions left for them and what with fuel no longer being collected and brought back, they were literally having to travel everywhere on bicycles or on foot from place to place. What was more, they had been picked off by several drones when they were travelling in a large group down a road and so they had to split up further into groups.

At the moment, in a small rock fall near a series of caves and a small forest, a large camp had been set up by the guerrillas here. Several main tents lined the large boulders whilst smaller ones were under the cover of the trees nearby. A few of the people that were ill or injured, having been by the fighting or the weather as it was cloudy and drizzling at the moment with a cold breeze blowing through the air, were in the nearby caves or large foxholes dug into the ground.

In one of the tents, or what was more of a tarpaulin pulled over an army officer was going over the maps of the area with two captains.

"The invaders 'ave cut us off here and here," the captain, a tall Scottish man with black hair and green eyes and a small beard, said, pointing at several roads on the map. "Sooner or la'er, they're bound ta send a few drones in to kick us to pieces,"

"What about the nearby village, like this one?" one of the captains, an Englishman about the same height as the Scotsman with blonde hair and brown eyes, asked, placing his finger on a small village near the rock fall, which itself was situated near an intersection of another nearby set of roads to the west of the camp.

"We could go there, bu' there's li'le chance it will be of any proper sanctuary," the officer replied.

"Sir! Sir!" another voice caused the men to look up to the entrance to their tent to see a young Scottish soldier of about thirty with brown hair and blue eyes. His hair was soaking wet and water was dripping down his face despite that it was drizzling. "We've just got a message on our receiver machine,"

"What's it say?"

"It's in Morse code, sir, but It's from a source in America,"

The officer and two captains looked at each other and ran out of the tent, following the soldier to a small cover made out of several smaller tarpaulins held up with metallic poles around a few small boulders. On a table in the middle of the cover next to one of the boulders was a receiver machine with a piece of paper coming out of it. Inked onto the surface of the paper were small dots and lines, forming a message to the soldiers.

The officer stepped forward and tore it out of the machine.

"It's defini'ely from the Americans," he said, reading what the message said.

"What are they telling us?" the English captain asked.

"They wan' ta organize a coun'er-strike against the invaders," the officer explained. "It's from that Dr Cockroach fellow of their monster team over there,"

"Good on him!" one of the soldiers, a northern Englishman exclaimed happily.

"What do they plan to do?" the captain asked and the officer began to explain it to them.

**Sahara Desert, Sudan-South Sudan border**

Under the blazing sun and blistering heat of the Sahara desert, a group of camel riders moved quickly across the sand and rock surface of the ground that bordered the Nile, heading directly towards a small tent camp in the desert that was a few hundred metres from the Nile.

Ever since the invasion a few months ago, the world's newest state, divided from Sudan by war, religion and famine, had united once more with It's old partner to fight against the Kyzua, but despite the heroicness of the two sides, it was in vain for Juba, the capital of the country, had fallen and was now under complete control by the Kyzua Sankiar, who ruled the city brutally just as they did in other parts of the world.

As the men rode, their rifles knocking loudly against their water canisters, binoculars and such they had tied to the sides of their camels, they were in deep conversation, having just been told by one of their friends, as they were had been out on a scouting mission nearby, of a Morse Code message being sent to them and were going back to the camp.

_"The Dr Cockroach of the American Monster Team has told us to prepare a full scale counteroffensive by destroying the capital ships hovering over the cities," _one of the riders, a middle aged man with black hair and beard, said in Arabic to the others around him.

_"Is he mad?!" _another of the camel riders, a black man who looked to be in his late twenties with short hair, exclaimed with disbelief. _"Is that even possible? How are we even supposed to get up to these ships?"_

As the men rode onto the camp, which they saw ahead of them as they reached the top of a small dune, the middle-aged Arabic rider began to explain to them that they were to use balloons to get up to the ships, much to the others' shock and further disbelief, but he did reassure them that they did have the capability to do so.

_"Well, when is it to begin?" _a younger rider, a boy of about seventeen with a bald head and was holding onto the reins of his camel tightly as it rode him towards the camp, asked.

**Cambodian jungle, west of Phnom Penh**

**Southeast Asia**

Humidity was the only thing that seemed to be hanging in the air within the jungle and usually anyone within it would begin to sweat profusely, but right now, the heat did not seem to be bothering the group of men and women who were moving about in a small camp they had made out of one of the many stone temples inside the jungle, all built as worship to the ancient gods and spirits the native people believed lurked here. It was often people looked to these places as where they could go to be safe and away from danger and now here it was becoming a reality quite literally.

One of the men, a rail thin Cambodian farmer, or former farmer, on a coding machine tore out a piece of paper.

_"Another message has just come through," _he said, handing it to the leader of the clan here, who was a middle-height man of about forty five and a former veteran of the civil war that had devastated the country years ago.

The man read it through several times before looking up at those around him and announced: _"The attack will begin in ten days," _he paused, allowing the number of days to sink into those around him. Ten days. Not really a great amount of time, but it was either now or never. This was, admittedly, despite the risks, probably the best chance they would get to strike back at the invaders. _"Prepare for the strike and search for any helium and/or balloons,"_

All over the world, the message was received by the many clans of guerrillas holding out against the Kyzua. It was a signal of hope for Humanity that they could deliver a deadly, perhaps even a fatal blow to this invader from another world, and finally drive him off their home planet for good.

Though few knew it, deadly consequences would arise out of it if it worked.

**Note: Just to quickly note, I'm working on another Fanfic so do not expect many quick updates on this one for a while. Do not worry, though, it will not be abandoned, just partially put on temporary hold. **


	42. Dealt another blow

**Eight days later **

**September 28****th****, two days to counterattack launch.**

**Outskirts of Portland**

Under the cloudy sky of the final days of September, a small group of the guerrillas moved cautiously through the bushes and trees of the countryside outside Portland on It's western side. Pulling themselves up onto a small ridge before a drop down a cliff side, they saw the view of the entire city sprawled out in front of them with the enormous Kyzua ship hovering overhead like some great watchmen ensuring nobody left the city or got into it.

Dr Cockroach pulled out a set of makeshift binoculars, made out of two fizzy drink cans, glass and different mechanical parts from a real pair of binoculars, a mobile phone and a magnifying glass from the belt of equipment he had on around him and looked through them. He had added an enhanced vision device to them, made out of an old mini solar panel he had made out of a battery and a piece of lead, and this allowed him to see right down onto the very roads of the entrances to the city. From what he could see, there were several large metallic barricades set up in the streets with short, curved metallic walls on the grounds next to them and several of the dragons mooching around them, though whether they were armed or not he did not know.

"Anything interesting, doc?" Susan, who was lying next to him, asked, keeping her voice low in case the Kyzua had any listening posts set up around here.

"A few barricades and machine gun positions set up in the streets, my dear," he replied. "Take a look," he added, passing her the binoculars and pointing to where he had looked.

Over the past week, the guerrillas had been busy at work collecting any information, scouting and monitoring the city and the land around Portland whilst preparing and practicing for the upcoming attack they had, which they had to do deep within the forest in case they drew any unwanted attention from any patrolling Kyzua. Everybody, despite the preparations, was heavy with fear. They knew that if this attack, not just here, but worldwide, failed, then there was virtually no hope of them striking back at the invaders, but this made them ever more determined to ensure they succeeded.

Still, though, in this group of guerrillas, Dr Cockroach had been thinking heavily about several things of this mission; the interior of the ship, the ways to get to it, the consequences, all of it. It weighed heavily on him like some great set of weights resting on his shoulders; ones he felt would be extremely difficult to be lifted off him even with help.

The worst of the many things he had been thinking about this mission was the safety of Susan. There was no doubt in her eyes as well as to everyone else that Dr Cockroach had been quite reluctant to let her go on this mission, though it was a little more difficult to explain why. Possibly it was because he did have some feelings for her and he feared for her safety, or maybe it was, again, because of the fact that they were going on board on alien vessel and this time their chances of survival were much lower than they had been before, or it was likely that he feared for her safety as a friend, rather than a lover, because she was the only one left on the team with him and if she was to go then Dr Cockroach would never be able to go on. Link, Insectosaurus and Bob were already gone, neither he or Susan not knowing whether they were still alive or not, and if Susan left then there would be no point in him hanging around on his own.

"Geez!" Susan breathed, aghast as she lowered the binoculars and passed them onto one of the two other soldiers next to her. "Your right, doc, it's like a fortress on each of the ways in there,"

"She's right," the soldier next to Susan, a medium height Asian-American soldier with black hair and brown eyes and was about twenty eight, piped up, passing the binoculars onto his buddy next to him. "How are we gonna get in there, let alone cause a distraction?"

"Not a problem, Mike," he replied. "Alfred, pass me the binoculars," he said to the end soldier, who was slightly taller than his friend and had brown hair and green eyes and was in his mid-thirties.

He passed Dr Cockroach back the binoculars and the scientist looked through them again, though this time he pointed ahead at a small residential area several miles to their right.

"That's where we will try and enter," Dr Cockroach said. "Hang on, let me take a picture,"

He pressed a button on the bottom of the binoculars. A clicking sound akin to a camera when it clicked as it took a picture, emitted from them. Dr Cockroach resumed looking through them for a moment, moving left and right slowly, scanning every inch of the nearby parts of the city in front of them. Then, he stopped again and pointed down to a large warehouse slightly to the left of where they were.

"You see down there?" he inquired, pointing to the warehouse, passing them the binoculars. Each had a look through them at the building. "That's how we could create a big enough distraction, enough to draw them away to you,"

Even though the three did have small doubts over the intended plan of the doctor with the warehouse, they had to admit it was a good try as well. What it was they were looking at was at the back of the warehouse were two large silver, metallic tankers that were lying in the car park next to the warehouse, having been taken down and dumped there by the Kyzua shortly after they arrived in the city. Even though Dr Cockroach had not told them what the plan was, just looking at the tankers told them enough. Set them off and then draw as many Kyzua as they could to the location.

"It's bound to work!" Dr Cockroach was saying as Susan passed him back the binoculars. "It'll definitely draw enough of them away to the distraction force,"

True, it sounded simple enough and it did have a strong likelihood that it would work, though…

"That's providing the tankers are full, though, doc," Susan told him.

Those words hit Dr Cockroach like a sledgehammer. Oh yes, he had forgotten about that completely! Damn! Well…he heaved a heavy sigh of anxiousness. They would just have to hope they were full. If not, then they would have to find another way of causing a distraction to draw the Kyzua away from where they wanted to enter the city. Hopefully it would not come to that because they had only two days left before the launch of the mission and stopping, or even postponing it globally was not going to be an option. No one knew how long the families of the dragons would be down here for to weaken the security of the Kyzua on the ships. It was now or never to hit back at them.

"Well…" he said after a moment's heavy pause. "Let's just hope they are," another pause fell between them, penetrated only by the sound of a drone flying overhead in a circle pattern around the city, the second time they had seen it do that since they had reached this part of the forest outside the city. "Alright, let's go back," he said.

He got up and, couching low, moved back away from the ridge into the forest. Susan, Mike and Alfred followed close behind him, their legs moving them as quickly as they could go in order to get away from the danger zone here, their hearts beating madly against their chests with the fear of being spotted hanging over them like a cloud.

Thankfully, after a few moments, they were able to stand up fully again. "Right, let's run back. We'll get out of here quicker,"

The others nodded and followed Dr Cockroach through the trees, pushing branches and bushes out of the way as they went. The sunlight broke through the layer of leaves and branches overhead in several places, making it feel as if they were in a jungle. Add a bit of humidity, a layer of leaves and thicker undergrowth above and below them and fill the air with the sounds of monkeys, birds, panthers etc. and it would have been. As Dr Cockroach led the group ahead through the forest, he saw a big grey path forming ahead of them. His eyes lit up like stars. The road!

"Almost at the road now," he said over his shoulders to the others.

They too were happy to hear this. The road was how they had gotten here and they could use it to get back to the camp where the others were. They were pretty much in the safe zone now.

They slowed to a halt as they reached the side of the road, their hearts beating like drums inside their torsos from the running. Dr Cockroach's eyes moved left and right, making sure they were no patrols or anything coming. Both ways were clear. They were safe.

"Alright, we go left, back the way we had come here or take a short cut through the forest?" he muttered to himself.

"Why not back the way we came?" Mike asked.

"The aliens might have picked us up or spotted us earlier moving down that way earlier," he told him. "Though, then again, they may have patrols lurking in the forest if they have, expecting us to go that way," he 'hmmed' for a moment in deep thought. "If they do, then we would run right into them by going into the forest,"

"Let's just take any way to get back," Alfred piped up nervously, looking around them as if they were being watched, which he felt like they were. "I'm gettin' nervous standing out here in the o-"

"LOOK OUT!"

_WHOOSH! BOOM!_ The four dived to the ground next to the road, covering their heads as much as they could as the road a few metres away seemed to explode from underneath. Large chunks of earth and tarmac were tossed high into the air like toys, raining down around the now huge crater in the ground. Silence filled the air, pushing aside even the lightest of breezes that had been moving so quietly through here just milliseconds before.

Gingerly, heart beating like he was running a marathon, Dr Cockroach lifted his head up from the ground, his eyes first falling on the now huge crater next to them, going wide upon seeing how the tarmac had been blown apart as if it had been hit by a huge grenade, then turning to look down the road ahead of them. It was there he saw them.

About one hundred feet away from them was a huge predator tank. This one was slightly bigger than the normal ones they had faced because of a huge squared shaped metallic object placed on the back of the vehicle just behind the main cannon, which was pointing down the road at them. Around it stood four dragons, their weapons close and clutched tightly in their hands, fingers on the triggers, ready to fire on whatever they might see move ahead of them at where they had just fired at.

"Is it still there?!" Mike whimpered slowly rising up from his laying down position on the ground. Susan next to him did the same.

Big mistake. All of a sudden, one of the dragons shouted something and fired a barrage at them, causing them to dive to the ground again. The air seemed to shift and break above them as whatever it was the dragons were firing moved above them. Dr Cockroach half-turned his head to see small, sharp, metallic crescent shaped moon discs smoking hot embedded in the sides of the trees and he gulped, fearing how painful one of those would be if they hit him or one of his squad mates with him.

"You guys get outta here!" Susan declared suddenly, causing the others to ship their heads to look at her, having to shout over the noise of the blasts and crescent moon discs being fired at them. "I'll try and hold 'em off!"

"But Susa-" Dr Cockroach protested, but she cut him off.

"Don't argue with me, doc! Just go, I'll be fine!"

Before he could protest any more, she got up and rushed out into the middle of the road. For a moment, the barrage ceased, the dragons watching her as if she was completely mad. Then, they aimed at her with their weapons. Behind them, the large cannon on the predator tank whirred loudly as it did the same, the end of the barrel of the cannon opening up.

Susan took the ring off her finger and at once, her limbs began to stretch. She felt herself rise higher and higher into the air, her body taking up more of the space around them. She was growing! Her three squad mates watched with a sense of relief, but the Kyzua, who had just about been prepared to fire on her, gasped and went wide-eyed. One of them dropped his weapon. Another gulped and took several paces back. Even behind them, the predator tank, which could easily fire and seriously injure, or even kill Susan with just one shot, geared loudly as the tracks began to move backwards up the way it came.

_CLANK! _The hatch on the back of the main cannon on the tank flew open and a tall, muscular, dark red dragon popped his head out from inside the vehicle. Though, unlike his men, he was not scared. On the contrary, he was fuming!

_"REI ILAN! KIE!" _he roared loudly. _Fire on her! Now! _

The dragons obeyed and let loose with everything they had upon her. Susan cried out in pain several times as some of the discs and blasts hit her, but she hid behind a few trees.

"Susan, run!" Dr Cockroach shouted up to her from the side of the road, only top duck down again as a blast flew over his head, narrowly missing it by a few millimetres.

"Doc! Mike! Alfred! All of you, get outta here!" she shouted back to them.

"Susan, we're not leaving you!" Dr Cockroach shouted back to her firmly.

"Don't argue with me, doc!" she glared at him, anger seeping into her eyes, but he saw the fear in them as well. "I'll be fine! I'll keep 'em distracted! Now go!"

"Doc, she's got a point!" Alfred told him before yelling out in surprise as the ground in front of him was ripped apart by a crescent moon disc, grass and dirt tossed everywhere.

Sighing reluctantly, Dr Cockroach got up and, as quick as he could, rushed across the road, diving into a small ditch near Susan's foot. Mike and Alfred rushed over after him, only just managing to avoid being hit by a blast from one of the dragons, who were now advancing back up the road towards them, their eyes burning with a sense to kill.

"Alright, go!" Dr Cockroach said to Mike and Alfred, who nodded and ran off into the trees. He turned to look back up at Susan, who looked down at him with sad eyes. "Susan," he said softly and fearfully, knowing what could happen to her.

"I'll be fine, doc!" she replied to him gently, kneeling down and picking him up in her hand. He felt like some kind of doll there, but he felt safe there as well. "I'll see you back at the camp," she said softly to him, pushing him up against her cheek.

He embraced it as much and as tightly as he could, not wanting to let go, but leaves and branches falling from above told him he had to go. With a heavy heart, Susan set him down on the ground and they looked at each other once more. Though Dr Cockroach could not be sure, he did think that he spotted a tear forming in her eye.

"Good luck!" she said to him.

He nodded in reply, looking at her sadly. "Be careful, my dear," he replied and rushed off into the trees, glancing over his shoulder as he went.

Susan watched him disappear into the undergrowth and took a deep breath. Not just to prepare herself, but to prevent herself from breaking down, knowing that she and Dr Cockroach had separated the team further and could possibly follow the same way as what had happened with Link, Bob and Insectosaurus. After pulling herself together, she stood up, her hands clenching into fists, ready to fight back.

"Alright, you space monsters!" she shouted to them, stepping out from the tree and pulling out a piece of the tarmac from the side of the crater with all her might, wielding it like a rounders ball. "Come and get some!"

It was then she saw the cannon turning once more, the end of the barrel opening up widely to reveal the black hole inside it. The four dragons stopped their firing and dived off the side of the road. A green light formed in the barrel of the main cannon of the predator and Susan went wide-eyed when she saw it, especially as it was aimed directly at…

_"REI!" FIRE!_

_WHOOSH! KABOOM!_

The earth seemed to leap around the road like an earthquake as the blast flew out from the cannon. Several trees collapsed, branches broke off, leaves were sprayed everywhere and dust was thrown into the air, covering the air just above the road like a small fog. A small orangey/yellowy/red colour sprung up from the base of where one of the collapsed trees had been. A small fire had been started and the flames began to lick at the base of the trees and wrap themselves around the bushes nearby.

Slowly and cautiously, the four dragons on the side of the road got up and ran down the road, their weapons faced out ahead of them, ready to fire on the target if it was still alive. As the dust cloud cleared as they reached the collapsed trees, they caught sight of a large shape. Taking a closer and more cautious step towards it, one of the dragons saw it was the giant woman. She was lying on her back with her eyes closed and mouth slightly open, dust pieces of branches and leaves covering her face, the rest of her body having been crushed under the trees that had collapsed around her.

_"Ilan bro'kia!" _(_She is down_) he shouted over his shoulder to the tank commander the vehicle, which had been moving up the road after the four dragons, came to a halt. The tall, muscular dragon pulled himself out of the tank and stepped down onto the ground, eyeing the woman with a sense of amazement as if he was a hunter who had caught himself a trophy from an animal he had just killed.

"_Send for a transport to take her body back with us," _he ordered. One of the dragons nodded and climbed into the tank to get onto a communication device with the command ship above the city. The tank commander looked back at the fallen woman and smiled to himself.

_"We have dealt the Humans another blow!" _


	43. Continuing without her

**Forty minutes later**

At the guerrilla camp deep within the forest, Monger was pacing up and down in front of his tent with his hands clutching each other tightly behind his back. Nervousness raged inside him like a storm. He had sent Susan, Dr Cockroach and two other soldiers out on a scouting mission of Portland earlier and even though he knew they would be a while, he was worried dearly for them. He had no idea whether any Kyzua patrols were going to be in their path or if they had been spotted or gotten lost or chased away, he just did not know! It was extremely frustrating for him and for everyone else!

"General!" a voice exclaimed and Monger, along with about everyone else nearby, looked up to see Alan running towards him, a worried look on his face. "General, we've got contact! Something's heading towards us!"

Monger's command instinct kicked into action almost instantly. "Alright, everyone get to cover and get ready!" he ordered.

The soldiers obeyed and took cover behind whatever was near them. Alan grabbed an M1 rifle and hid behind a pile of crates. Another two nearby soldiers, who were leaning against one of the jeeps smoking, ran behind it, clutching their pistols in their hands tightly, ready to fire on whatever threat was coming towards them. Monger crouched down on one knee behind another crate and picked up a small 9mm pistol, his eyes trained on the forest, his mouth ready to shout out the order to fire if need be, which it was likely to be.

Rustling emanated from the leaves on the ground in the forest ahead of them and several bushes about a hundred feet away shook wildly. A twig snapped. Fear rose within the camp. The soldiers gripped their weapons tighter. Looks of concentration set across their faces. There was no doubt they were scared for they had no idea what was coming towards them and, if it was the Kyzua, how many of them there were, but they braced themselves, ready to fend off the attacking dragons if that is what was coming towards them. The rustling grew louder and footsteps filled the air.

_SWISH!_

"STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!"

"NO! Don't shoot!"

Dr Cockroach threw his arms up into the air in alarm with a yelp as he emerged from the bush. Alfred and Michael emerged out next to him, also throwing their arms up into the air in alarm as well, terrified for a brief moment that they were going to be shot by their own side.

Gingerly, Monger got up from behind the crate he was behind. "Doc," he said, his face changing into a look of relief. "Michael, Alfred. Your back,"

The other soldiers gradually began to emerge from their hiding places, relieved that it was not one of the Kyzua that was coming out here. However, Monger and pretty much everyone else in the camp quickly began to realize the obvious absence of someone from the group that had been sent out earlier.

"Where's Susan?" Monger asked.

Dr Cockroach looked grimly at Alfred and Michael, who returned with equal expressions on their faces, and cleared his throat, his voice trying to kick into action even though it too was finding it difficult to utter what had happened.

"W-we were…spotted by a patrol," Dr Cockroach muttered lowly, though it was loud enough for Monger to hear.

"Yeah, well…what happened, doc?" he asked him, a hint of demand in his voice now. "Where's Susan? What happened to her?"

"I…I…We think…" he took a deep breath, preparing himself to force these accursed words he really did not want to say, particularly to everyone else, out of him, but he knew he had to. "We heard an explosion behind us…and…Susan, who had stayed behind to hold off the predator tank,… We…think she's…she's…"

He shook his head, unable to go on, but his tone of voice and the sentence he was speaking seemed to have told Monger and the other soldiers what had happened to her…and the sad thing was that when coming into contact with a predator tank, it was extremely likely that she was…well…no longer here. Monger sighed, rubbing a hand down his face, sadness running through him as if he had been struck a fatal blow, which, in a way, he had.

Dr Cockroach too felt defeated by this. The last few months had taken It's toll on him. First they are defeated, then they are driven from their home, then Insectosaurus leaves, then Link and he had a fight and he leaves and then Bob goes and now…now Susan was gone. His worst fears had been realised.

With Susan gone…he was on his own now, not literally, but he felt like his closest friends, even his family for who he had known for so long, they were all gone. He could feel his heart breaking down with all the pressure now, but he just had to accept it and…and, as much as he did not want to, move on and continue the struggle against the Kyzua.

"Well," Monger breathed after a few moments' silence. "We can't do anything about it now, doc," he told the bug headed scientist. "We're just gonna…" he paused for a moment, not wanting to say this, but he had to. "Just gonna have to continue the mission and the fight without her,"

Dr Cockroach nodded lowly. "Right," he muttered sadly.

Monger patted him on the shoulder sympathetically. "Go and sit down in the tent. I'll be there to talk with you about exactly what happened in a moment,"

The cockroach headed scientist nodded and walked wordlessly past Monger towards the tent. Behind and around him, the other soldiers in the camp seemed to have realised what had happened and were muttering nervously amongst themselves. With Susan gone: what were they to do now? How were they to fight without her help? How did they expect to succeed in the upcoming mission, let alone the fight, without her help? All of those questions raged in their minds like storms, and this time there looked to be no calming of them.

As Dr Cockroach walked into the tent, pushing the flap out of his way with a flick of his arm, his mind began to remind himself constantly that he was on his own now, that he was the last monster who could help Humanity win the fight against the Kyzua.

Though, somewhere in the back of his brain, he did begin to wonder how long it would be until it was his turn to follow the same fate as his friends.


	44. Taiko

Darkness was all that seemed to surround Susan as she groggily opened her eyes, a groan emanating from her mouth. As she sat up, a wave of pain began to sweep through her, flaring up and down her body from her feet onto her arms and to her head. It hurt whenever she moved a part of her body but at the same time this had reassured her she was, at least, alive.

_Shame it doesn't tell you if you're okay _she thought grudgingly as she rubbed her eyes and began to gaze at her surroundings, her blue eyes gradually adjusting to the darkness.

By the looks of it, she could feel herself in a kind of long, but quite thin cell, (it must have been small because she pushed herself up to rest against one wall and her feet spread out in front of her were just about touching another), with a metallic floor and walls and ceiling. Looking right, she saw that there was a kind of purple/red coloured haze about ten feet ahead of her and behind that was, what appeared to be though the darkness, a huge tunnel that stretched both left and right, though where they led to she could not tell. How did she get here anyway?

Her mind went into deep thought, but she gradually began to remember the events leading up to this. She could remember that she was in the forest outside Portland…yes, with Dr Cockroach and two other soldiers. Then what? Oh, yeah, they were on a scouting mission and were beginning to make their way back to the camp where the others were…then what? Oh, come on Susan, think! Ah, yes, then they were ambushed by a predator tank. Then…then she told the others to leave, and Dr Cockroach was not very happy about that but he went anyhow. Then she went out, at her giant size, to confront these creatures and then…if she remembered correctly, they fired on her and…and that was about it.

Speaking of her giant size, was she even still at it? Looking down at her hand, she saw that the ring was still on her finger, completely undamaged. Wow! Either the dragons just did not know about it or for some reason they just decided to keep it on her. Then again, upon remembering the ability of this piece of jewellery, they probably put it back on her so as to shrink her. Anyway, she still did not know where she was. Where had they taken her, it was obvious they had done something with her, but what and where was she? More importantly, could she get out?

Pulling herself to her feet, Susan began to limp over to the haze, her legs having not yet fully recovered from the blow dealt her earlier on and reached out a hand to touch it. A nervous voice in her head told her not to do so, probably warning of déjà vu with what happened last year when she tried to escape from the prison on Gallaxhar's ship and the electric field around her hurt whenever she touched it, though she was able to withstand the pain enough for her to escape. Would it work this time though?

_It's worth a try _she mentally said to herself. _Better than sitting around in a cell waiting to see what happens_

Her hand inched closer to the haze and Susan bit her lip in anticipation, fearing she would hurt herself again like last year, though this time it could be worse. She could probably…who knew…disintegrate her hand, or even her arm, or paralyze herself or something hideous like that. Her hand paused for a moment just a mere two inches from the haze as if it itself was debating whether to touch it, but Susan had to try because she needed to know whether she could escape from this cell or not.

Just then, a wave of light suddenly emanated from somewhere outside the cell and seemed to fill the entire tunnel, blinding Susan momentarily as she raised her arm out in front of her to shield her eyes, stepping back a few paces as well.

Then, as quickly as it came, the light vanished and Susan lowered her arm to be faced with almost complete darkness once again. Questions immediately began to run through her head. What was that all about? Was it something happening? Or was it something, or someone, entering the tunnel? If it was, why? All the terrible prospects quickly began to fill her brain. Were they sending someone to torture her, probably for information on the guerillas she had been with? Or was it to kill her? Fear gripped her and she withdrew slightly from the haze.

Light pattering sounds echoed up and down the tunnel, breaking through the haze and reaching Susan's ears. She gulped and stared out into the darkness, her heart rate beginning to go erratic. Those pattering sounds were…were footsteps. She was right! _Someone _was in the tunnel with her.

"W-whose there!" she said anxiously, fear gripping her voice.

A light 'hmm' emanated from somewhere in the darkness ahead of her and a shape began to move towards her cell. Her eyes began to see the faint outline of a figure coming towards her and it was then a real sense of fear gripped Susan and she withdrew further into her cell as if it would be some refuge to her from this…figure that might try and attack her.

All of a sudden, a white light turned on from somewhere in the tunnel, lighting it up almost as if the sun was rising within in, blinding Susan again for a few moments before her eyes adjusted to it, either that or the light dimmed slightly enough for her to see properly. She could now see that the cell was a complete silver colour and so was the tunnel. In fact, she could even make out several doors on the walls of the tunnel opposite her, they being a slightly darker silver colour, almost like the colour of grey.

She could also see the figure in front of her, only he was one of the Kyzua dragons. He was quite tall, about maybe 6ft 3, maybe 6ft 4, and had more of an athletic trend to his body rather than a heavy build she had seen with many others in the past. The redness of his skin was slightly light, almost the colour of red they would use in crayons and colouring pencils. Though what really intrigued Susan was that rather than having a dark and aggressive look on his face, which would have reminisced her back to Gallaxhar when he had confronted her last year, he had more of a sympathetic look on his face. Now that would have relaxed her slightly, but it was the fact that he had both of his arms behind his back that wade her wary. Was he holding a weapon or some kind of device to…maybe torture her or read her mind or force her into talking or something?

"How are you feeling?" he asked her gently, almost as if he was worried for her.

Susan was slightly taken aback by this, but she did not lower her guard. "Um…I-I'm fine," she replied.

The dragon nodded and raised one of his hands to press something on the wall to the right of the entrance to her cell. The haze withered and disappeared and the dragon stepped forward into her cell. Susan took a pace back, fear rising into her again, not knowing what the dragon was going to do to her.

"You do not need to be afraid of me," he reassured her.

"Then…then what are you doing here?" she asked him, trying to put a bit of a firm tone in her voice but she could not get rid of the fear that came out with it.

The dragon responded by taking out his other hand from behind his back. What he held surprised Susan even more. It was a small metallic cup with an apple on top of it. Was he…was he offering her food and water?! This was…it was just…wow! She could barely begin to describe it.

"Eat," he told her. "You haven't fed yourself for a long time now. You need to be healthy,"

Susan's gaze shifted upwards from the cup and apple and looked him in his red eyes. "Why?" she asked, her voice now slightly more demanding. "What are you gonna do with me?"

"Nothing," the dragon replied. "We will not harm you, I promise you,"

Susan still did not fully trust him. Why should she? These creatures were invaders and after everything they had done, why should she listen to him, let alone believe him?

But…looking back down at the apple and cu in the dragon's hand, she was feeling a bit hungry, which was added to by a low growl from her stomach. The dragon stifled a laugh.

"Come, you must eat," he said to her. "You will do yourself great harm if you don't,"

Susan sighed and, gingerly, took the apple and cup from his hand, though she looked into the cup and shook it slightly to see if there was anything in it. No, there was nothing. Okay, what about the apple? She brought it up to her mouth and took a small bite and chewed it. Well...it did not taste any different. In fact, it was completely normal. Looks like this dragon _was _telling the truth after all.

"Well…thank you," Susan replied.

The dragon smiled. "It is fine," he replied. "Come, sit," he offered.

She did so, sitting down on the floor with her back against the wall. The dragon sat down next to her, crossing his legs and resting his arms on his lap, watching her as she took another bite from the apple, chewed and swallowed that mouthful and then drank some of the water, sighing in relief as she felt the refreshing liquid slide down her throat.

"Do you feel better now?" he asked her.

Susan nodded and gave him a small smile. "Thank you," she replied.

Silence fell between them again for a moment as Susan continued to eat the apple. It was when she was about a quarter of the way through it that she felt she had to ask him something.

"So…what are you gonna do with me?"

"Take you back to your family," he answered, which did shock her to the point where she almost dropped her apple. What! T-they were going to take her back to her parents!

Even after a few moments, she still was not able to comprehend it. "W-what? Did you say…y-your taking me back to my parents?"

The dragon nodded. "Yes. We know where they are, in a large city near where you used to live. You will be taken there in a few days, though you must realize that trying to leave will be extremely forbidden,"

Susan nodded lowly, gazing momentarily down at the cup of water, which was nearly finished, only being about another mouthful left. She drank that and set it down next to her, the tapping of metal hitting metal the only thing penetrating the silence of the cell.

"So…who are you?" Susan asked him, setting her apple back on top of the empty cup.

The dragon held up his hand. "Taiko," he greeted.

She raised her hand and shook his. "Susan," she replied as they released. "So what are you planning to do here, Taiko? With me, I mean? Why did you keep me alive?"

He just shrugged. "You were brought back in a cold state. Plus, with you being the size you were, it really did amaze us that you could hold such power, so we decided to bring you back alive,"

"What…f-for you to…like, I dunno…dissect me or do tests on me or something? Or were you trying to take the quantonium from me?"

"No, nothing like that!" another pause hung between them for a moment. "I will say, though, Susan, you were lucky you were caught by regular soldiers and not the Sankiar,"

Susan stared at him questionably. "Who are the Sankiar?"

"The elite soldiers of our army, identifiable by the badges of so called 'honour'-" he added a disgusted and sarcastic tone on the word honour. "-On their arms and, as I said, you were lucky we had found you rather than them,"

"Why's that?"

"They would have killed you then and there,"

"Oh. Well, that's not really the first time something like that had happened to me,"

Taiko raised an eyebrow. "This happens to you often?"

Susan shook her head. "Only once, but it was a year ago when I was captured by some squid-like alien called Gallaxhar,"

Upon hearing that name, Taiko's eyebrows dropped to a displeased expression, adding to the same look that was etching across his face.

"Oh, him!" he muttered un-approvingly.

"You heard of him?" Susan asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. His race was always known for being weaklings and fools," he chuckled to himself. "I myself was happy to hear that he destroyed his own species. What happened to him anyway?"

"He died when his ship blew up after he captured me and my friends came to rescue me-" she stopped dead and realization struck her as if she had run headlong into a brick wall. Oh God! Dr Cockroach and the mission! They would be coming here soon, right into the depths of this ship. "They might come and rescue me again," she muttered under her breath as she looked down at the floor, lost in thought for a moment, though this did not go unnoticed by Taiko.

"Sorry?" he inquired.

Susan snapped out of her thought and shook her head, blinking several times. "Oh, nothing, nothing!" she answered quickly.

Taiko looked at her suspiciously but said nothing more, though he did begin to wonder in his mind what it was she was a little nervous about. She did know something that he did not, or at least that is what he thought, but he brushed it aside, knowing he had other duties to attend to.

In fact it was those other duties coming into his brain that made him realize he had to get to them and he got up.

"I must go now, Susan," he told her and turned to walk towards the cell entrance.

"Wait, Taiko!" Susan said, stopping him as she got up from the floor. He turned to face her. "Can I ask you something?"

He nodded. "Go ahead,"

"You have your family visiting you now, don't you?" she asked. Taiko was a little surprised by this question, which Susan saw because his eyes went a little wide, but he nodded. "Well, this may sound a bit weird but I know wouldn't be really happy about me if I was in your position and I had my friends killing others. Doesn't your family feel that way?"

Taiko sighed. "Of course they do, Susan," he replied lowly. "But…you must realize that it is the way of life for the strong to take whatever opportunity they have to survive and to push aside and, if necessary, destroy the weak," he was speaking sorrowfully as if he was admitting his regret. "I do not like it either, but…I cannot go against what natural law requires us to do. After all, you would do the same if you were in my position, regardless of what anyone else thought of your actions," He paused for a moment to let that sink into her and turned his back to her to walk out of the cell. "And, besides, I cannot go against the order of my masters. If I do, then…" he trailed off, not wanting to think of, let alone talk of the consequences of him doing something like that.

"But don't you personally ever have… Oh, I don't know…any self-morals or anything? Don't you ever think you could disobey your masters and put morals first?"

Another sigh passed Taiko's lips and he walked out of the cell, but stopped in the doorway and looked over his shoulder at Susan.

"That part of me died a long time ago, Susan," he told her sadly.

The expression on her face saddened, her blue eyes lowered to look at the floor, defeated.

"I will send someone to collect your food when you are finished," he told her and activated the haze barrier and stepped out into the tunnel once again, the light there going out and filling it with darkness once more.

Susan could make out his shape much easier this time, thanks to the light emanating from her cell, and watched as he reached the wall on the other side of the tunnel. A door opened, causing a wave of bright white light to sweep into the tunnel, but Taiko paused in the doorway and looked once more back over his shoulder at Susan's cell for a moment as if regretting leaving her. Then after a moment, he shook his head and walked out into the white light and the door closed behind him, leaving the only light in the tunnel now to be from the cell.

Susan sighed and walked back over to where she had left her cup and apple and sat down next to them, resting her back against the wall behind her. Sadness clouded her mind now that she realized that she was on her own now and that any hope of trying to make the dragons see some moral sense was going to be hopeless. Speaking of hope, she knew now that her only hope was for Dr Cockroach and the others to launch that counterstrike on the ship and free her, though it seemed that nope she had fully realized the likelihood of it failing because Dr Cockroach was the only other monster left with them. Last time, He, Link, Bob and Insectosaurus had come to free her as a team, but even then they had only just managed to do so. With only one now, the chances of it failing were…well, to put it mildly, through the roof, and that was just without the fact that with families here the Kyzua were going to be more wary than ever in protecting them.

Bringing her knees up to her chest and embracing them tightly, Susan exhaled another sigh and rested her head on them.

"We really are on a tightrope now," she muttered sadly to herself.


	45. Start of the operation

**Two days later**

**Portland suburbs, Oregon**

The air was so thick with tension and anxiety that you could cut it with a knife. Little sound was filling the air, save for the occasional rustle of leaves on the trees scattered up and down the road as well as the bushes in the front gardens of the houses that lined the road. Even the many birds that had once flown freely through this suburb were barely flying around now, literally making it feel as if all moving life was gone because of the invaders.

Luckily, though, the force of about eighty men did have one thing on their side. It was a reasonably nice day, the sun was shining brightly and there were a few clouds passing lazily overhead, meaning visibility to the ship hovering over the centre of Portland was going to be excellent.

On the street of the suburb, Monger led a group of about twenty soldiers towards a small intersection in the road, all of them keeping low so as not to be detected by any scouts or guards the Kyzua had scattered about in the city. Following after Monger was Dr Cockroach and then the three others who would be going up into the ship with him, who were Andy, Mike and Alfred. On each of their backs were small backpacks loaded with explosives, ammunition, many empty balloons, Dr Cockroach having a small tank which he had managed to suck all the helium into after finding several helium tanks in someone's barn, and small laser pistols that the doctor had managed to craft for them out of the little metal they had found from an abandoned car they had come across last night in the forest after another scouting mission on the city to make sure they had everything for the coming attack.

Monger stopped on the street corner where a row of shops were placed and held up his hand to signal the others to come to a halt, which they did. He then poked his head out from behind the building to look down the street, seeing several of the large warehouses about two hundred feet away and the blockade the Kyzua had set up on the road between them, as well as the soldiers mooching about around it. To the right of the barricade was their target; the fuel containers in the car park, lying on their sides, just visible over the tops of the high walls that surrounded the warehouse.

_Right where the doc had said they were _he mentally said to himself.

Withdrawing back behind the side of the building and crouching down, he held the radio up to his lips. He had to make this quick before the Kyzua picked up his radio transmission and locked onto his position.

"Alright, groups two through four, we're in position near the fuel containers. You guys ready?" he said into the radio.

_"Yes, sir," _came three different voices in reply before one voice took over. _"All groups are in position and awaiting the signal,"_

"Roger that, get ready," Monger told them and put the radio back onto the belt around his waist and turned to the rest of the group next to him. "Alright, you four-" he pointed at Dr Cockroach, Andy, Mike and Alfred. "-get ready to head across the street when we open fire on 'em,"

Dr Cockroach nodded lowly, a kind of defeated gaze on his face, not only because of the sheer weight of this mission on his and the others' shoulders but also because they were one member short. Ever since Susan had stayed behind to allow him and the others to escape, it had been hard for the entire force, let alone Dr Cockroach himself, to accept that they were going to have to continue on without her. They still did not know whether she was alive and had been captured or was dead, it having to be one of those two options because there was no chance she could have escaped a predator tank and even if she did, she would have easily found the way back to the camp. Still, though, it was going to be extremely difficult in getting to the right place in the city for a start before they could actually start floating up towards it, and that was going to be even more difficult because these balloons were multi-coloured and as soon as the Kyzua saw them floating towards the ship, they would fire on them and kill them.

It was very literally a suicidal task, and it was completely dependent on luck and hope for them to just even get below the ship. Huh, that it itself contradicted how the guerrillas managed to get into Portland. It had been easy getting into the city because they had come in at night and for some strange reason, the Kyzua did not think that the guerrillas would dare launch a raid against them at night so there were barely any patrols when they snuck into the city early this morning. Plus, they had a small fog covering their movement so it was easy for them to sneak in. Right now, they were separated into four groups scattered in different parts of this huge suburb. This was group 1, groups 2 and 3 had taken up a position a few streets away near a stronger set of barricades and group 4 was on the ridge overlooking the suburb. This whole plan was to draw as many Kyzua as they could towards the suburbs and away from around the bottom of the ship, increasing the chances of the team getting into the ship to blow it up. Group 1 would try and distract any Kyzua guards here whilst the others fired on any patrols that were sent to reinforce their comrades.

The one thing that had to be taken into account, however, was the risk of losing many men. After all, with the families of the dragons in the city, they were going to do whatever it took to protect them so the force of soldiers here had to be prepared to fight their enemy ferociously as they would do so in return to them.

"Alright, get ready," Monger whispered to the four, who moved up next to him, crouched down, equipment close and hearts racing in their chests as adrenaline pumped through their veins. Monger poked his head out from behind the side of the building once again, seeing the about ten strong barricade group of dragons moving about amongst each other, still occupying themselves with chatter or just staring blankly at the buildings around them. "James, get up here," he whispered.

Another soldier of about thirty one, who was about the same height as Dr Cockroach, had black hair and brown eyes, moved over to Monger, a sniper rifle in his hand. Monger nodded towards the fuel tanks lying down in the car park just down the road, directly near the barricade of the dragons.

"You see them clearly?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," James replied, nodding.

"Try and hit 'em," Monger looked back over his shoulder at the team. "Get ready to move,"

The four braced themselves for the coming run, inhaling silently and deeply as if it would give them some kind of protection from anything the Kyzua dragons might fire down the road at them. The seconds ticked by. One, two, three. When was it going to come? When was it going to come?

All of a sudden, exactly within the blink of an eye…

**BOOM! **The ground seemed to shake and a burst of wind seemed to cut through everyone and everything, almost making the scene look as if they were in Hiroshima. A huge fireball soared high into the air, with it went large pieces of concrete and metal from the surrounding buildings, cars and the wall of the car park. The Kyzua dragons were all thrown to the ground by the force of the explosion. Now was the time!

"Alright, go, go, go!" Monger ordered, urging the four across the road.

They ran as fast as they could across to the other side of the road and down towards the barricade before turning quickly into an alleyway that was between another factory wall and another set of shops, pausing to catch their breath over their quick marathon. That was the weird thing about this. They had to run only about ten to fifteen metres, yet they were tired, but then again they did each have a huge backpack of equipment on their backs and they were trying to avoid getting shot so that did take the energy out of them.

"Everyone alright?" Dr Cockroach asked once they had gotten their breath back after a few seconds.

The others all nodded or replied with "Yeah, I'm good," or "Yeah," Behind them, back out in the street, the dazed and surprised Kyzua guards got to their feet, their minds trying to process what had just happened.

_"SHOKA MUTINAR!"_ one of the guards on top of the platform attached to the back of the barrier suddenly roared, pointing down the road.

The next thing that seemed to happen was that the air was shifting and filled with great bangs of gunfire as bullets whizzed past, colliding with the barrier, the ground or the walls of the buildings and walls surrounding them. The guards dived for cover and returned fire down the road at the force of soldiers, who were now taking cover behind the corner walls on the two rows of shops on the other side of the street and firing out from behind there. One round bounced off the ground and struck one of the Kyzua, who had taken cover behind a sticking out section of the car park wall, in the leg and with an almighty roar of pain, he fell to the ground, exposed. Luckily, one of his comrades rushed forward from behind the barrier, grabbed him and pulled him behind it, bullets ricocheting off their metal cover.

_"Is Ekon alright?" _the Kyzua soldier crouched down on the platform above called down, having to raise his voice over the noise of the gunfire.

The Kyzua soldier who rescued his comrade, who was gritting his teeth tightly to almost breaking point, almost as if he was trying to conceal the pain inside him, and groaning loudly from behind them, grabbed Ekon's leg, having to push him back against the barrier as he tried to wrestle him off, and checked the wound. The bullet was lodged in their somewhere but that was not the problem. It was dirty, having been covered with dust from the ground when he had fallen over after being hit. He grabbed the water canister off Ekon's belt and poured some of the contents inside over the wound to clean it and stop it from getting infected.

_"AAAHHH!" _

Suddenly, the soldier who had been on the platform above fell to the ground with a thud next to them, his eyes cold and emotionless, his body unmoving to the pain that had been flaring from the wound on his chest. He was gone.

One of the other Kyzua soldiers, possibly the leading one here at the barricade, growled loudly and looked over at Ekon and the soldier with him.

"_Okvon, get Ekon back to the outpost and call for reinforcements now!" _he shouted at him, quickly ducking behind the barricade after firing a few blasts from his weapon to avoid another bullet that ricocheted off the side of the metallic cover to the ground.

_"Where is the outpost?" _Okvon asked.

The commanding soldier pointed down the road towards a large warehouse about three hundred feet away. _"Over there!" _he informed. _"Now go, hurry!" _he ordered and resumed firing on the Human soldiers.

Okvon picked up Ekon, placing him over his shoulders, which was difficult as Ekon was slightly heavier than him, and began to stagger as quickly and carefully as he could down the road towards the warehouse.

Meanwhile, in the alleyway, the four listened to the battle rage in the street, hearing the shouts and roars from both the Humans and Kyzua. It was almost deafening, despite having two tall barricades to block out much of the noise either side of them, almost as if it was right next to them.

"Should we go and help them?" Andy, who was leaning against the wall, asked questionably.

That question hung in the air like a cloud over them. Should they go and help their friends? Admittedly, they really did want to go and help them, they really wanted to go and fight them, but they had their own mission to get on with. This was the perfect and possibly only opportunity they had to do this. Throwing away this chance could be disastrous for everywhere and everyone.

Suddenly, a loud pinging noise filled their ears as several bullets hit the ground and wall and ricocheted out. The four covered their heads and, simultaneously, dived to the ground to avoid the deadly projectiles. A pause hung between them for about a second before Andy slowly raised his head.

"It's alright," he said.

Mike and Alfred stood up, relief sweeping through them that they had just avoided having their heads blown open. Dr Cockroach, however, sat crouched on the crouched on the floor, his head covered by his hands. At first, they assumed he had not heard them but it was then they heard the quick paced and short breathing and saw his hands shaking as they covered his head. Andy knelt down towards him.

"Doc, you okay?" he asked, concern filling his voice.

Dr Cockroach's large eyes slowly moved up to look at him. Andy clearly saw the fear within them but before he could ask again if he was alright, the cockroach headed scientist cleared his throat as if he had snapped back into reality.

"Yes…yes, I-I'm fine," he replied, getting up. "Come, we have to go before they come after us," and with that he rushed off past them down the alleyway. The others gave each other concerned looks, knowing that there was something wrong with him over what had just happened but they decided not to question why and followed him down the alleyway, the noise of the battle filling the air behind them.

**Meanwhile, in the city centre**

In the city centre of Portland, where the majority of the Kyzua soldiers were located for the city, the scene was one of busyness at It's height. Dragons were rushing to and from different buildings or small set up outposts in the parks or on the pavements, attracting the curious gazes of the few Human citizens out on the streets to see what the commotion was about, vehicles were being brought out to move to different parts of the city, weapons were being loaded with ammunition and requests for more robots and drones to be sent down from the ship were being sent out. It was quite disorganized and chaotic for the Kyzua, but they were lucky that their master Kosian was going up to the ship or they would have to deal with another angry outburst from him. For them, he was now the problem for whoever had to tell him the news on the ship when he reached it and for the captain, Taiko. Well, Aristokra would be the only one to help him when that happened.

Outside a wing section of the Portland city hall, which had been opened up to allow an alternative entrance and exit for the dragons, one of the regular Kyzua soldiers, who was holding a cup in his hand, looked out of the hole that was the way in and out onto the street to see several soldiers running to and from the oval shaped trucks parked on the road. One of the raider buggies was parked at the front but the driver was shouting out aggressively to the dragon, a Sankiar, who was meant to be manning the turret, to hurry up so they could get moving and the Sankiar dragon swore back at him.

The dragon at the hole, which backed into a room that was small and square, probably having once been an office, with several tables and holographic chart devices placed about, as the rest of the contents of the room had been thrown out some time before, raised his eyebrows and stifled a laugh.

_"Wouldn't want to be involved in this now," _he muttered, looking over his shoulder at another regular Kyzua soldier dragon sitting behind a desk and looking over the holographic charts which picked up any changes in the radio frequency in the air. At the moment, the chart lines were rising and falling continuously, probably being caused by the conversation between the different groups of Human and Kyzua soldiers far away in the suburbs.

The dragon sitting at the desk stifled a laugh as well. _"Does seem quite hectic over there," _he commented calmly.

It was amazing that these two were not worried by the fact that there was a battle raging just a few miles from here, in this city where their families and where Human civilians were. Then again, from a Kyzua point of view with this city being quite big and the battle taking place a few miles from the centre where the families would be, they just did not really feel the need to worry. After all, even if the Humans did break out of the suburbs and decided to plough further into the city, they had to deal with drones, robots and further, more heavily defended barricades before getting here. Plus, the Kyzua knew that their numbers were likely to be small so they were not really that panicked about this battle raging not too far away.

The starting of engines outside drew the heads of both of the two dragons just in time to watch the raider buggy, with the Sankiar now manning the turret, drive away down the road, followed by the oval trucks, each of which were packed to the brim with soldiers, both regular and Sankiar. One thing was for sure now: there was going to be a tough battle ahead.

The dragon at the hole moved back into the room and took a swig from his cup, the brown liquid sliding down his throat. Almost at once, his face was hit hard by it and he shuddered. That was strong, very strong, and disgusting!

_"Oooohh! What is this drink the Humans call it?" _he asked, grimacing.

His friend knelt down to the floor and picked up a small plastic, transparent container that had hundreds of tiny granules inside it. Across the front of the container were the words **Espresso coffee granules**.

_"They call it coffee," _he told him, turning the container around to look at it and the words on the front. _"Espresso coffee granules. Apparently, they are quite strong," _he added, looking up at his friend.

_"They should call it espresso shit granules," _the first dragon commented disapprovingly, moving back to the hole and throwing what was left of it outside onto the pavement. _"Just as bad as that thing they call a kettle to boil this up in,"_

His friend shrugged and put the container back down on the floor and picked up his own cup, also filled with coffee and took a swig.

_"I like it," _he commented, placing the cup back down on the table and resuming his work, not seeing the shake of the head and roll of the eyes from his friend behind him.


	46. A final goodbye

**Meanwhile, south at San Francisco**

**Note: the lyrics in this chapter are from the song 'Slipped Away', which is rightfully owned by Avril Lavigne**

This September morning greeted the inhabitants of the city with a heavy fog that hung across the city and the bay, the remains of the pillars of the Golden Gate and Bay bridges being the few things being visible through the layers of fog. The fog looked like an all covering force that seemed to have San Francisco under It's rule, but it did not have control of the Kyzua ship that hovered silently over the city. It was also quite chilly this morning and the few Humans that were out had their jackets or coats on. Even the Kyzua were beginning to get cold but at least the good thing to both them and the Humans was that they had restored central heating to the city.

Talking of the Kyzua, most of the soldiers were either still asleep, on guard around the city or, and this number was small, were seeing their families off as some of them had spent the night down on the ground.

In the city golf course, the large spire shaped drop ship rested on the ground like a giant beast in a slumber, waiting for the last of the Kyzua family members to board to take them up to the ship. There were a few soldiers saying goodbye to their loved ones but the soldiers were filled with envy for their families, and a few of their comrades as well because they were going back to the ships where it was much warmer and they would do anything to go back to the ship and get out of this weather, even though they could do that in the city but…you know they would feel better if they were with their families.

Near the park wall, Oken had his wife in a tight embrace whilst their daughter was standing by the park exit with an electronic device in her hand. It was something the Humans called an 'MP3 player', and at the moment she was finding it difficult how to work it, which was not helped by the fact that this thing was a touchscreen one.

"_You look after yourself up there, won't you," _Oken said to his wife soothingly.

_"Of course, Oken," _she replied, planting a kiss on his neck. _"We're only going up to the cruiser, not back to the mother ship,"_

_"I know, I just…" _he paused for a moment and heaved a heavy sigh in concern. _"I just worry about you two in general,"_

His wife Tesha pulled back from him, still holding him in an embrace, and looked reassuringly into his eyes.

_"Oken, trust me, we'll be safe. Nothings is going to happen to us," _she told him. _"Us being together for many years now has taught me how to be careful and to look after myself,"_

Oken chuckled. _"So you're saying that I matured you?" _he inquired.

"_Well…" _Tesha shrugged. _"Yes, you could say that, though only a little," _they both laughed a little at her joke and looked lovingly at each other once again. _"I still remember when I first met you, when you much younger,"_

_"On Dulak,"_ Oken nodded at the memory, smiling to himself. They had met when he had landed on the planet, which was the first conquest of his life and also in his army career as he had become a soldier in the last few days of the conquest of the planet, and they had gone to ground and there he had met Tesha when she was a new nurse. They got chatting to each other after she had healed him and that was where it all began. _"It was a shame we could not meet back on our home planet," _he sighed sadly.

His wife nodded in agreement. Even though their entire race was with them and the mother ship was their home, it just did not feel like it was. Though they had never seen their home planet as their people had been on the move long before they were born, they just did not feel like the mother ship was their _real _home. In fact, the sad thing was that all they knew of their old home world was a few holographic photographs taken by their ancestors, and even then their planet had not exactly been fit for life.

From what they knew, the planet was dying after many millennia of harmful industry, over hunting, overpopulation, an increasing rate of natural resource consumption, factional infighting among the race, though thankfully this had been rare, and the worst one of them all was that their star that had kept them alive for so long had begun to die. Their leaders at the time realised that they had no choice but to leave their home world and try and find a new planet to live on. Problem was; even though they were nomadic directly after they had left, no planet that was capable of supporting life had the correct amount of resources, space and such for their entire people to live on it and make it a new home world. And even if they did, there was the problem of other intelligent life that had taken much of it or ruined the planet enough to make it difficult to settle an entire species on it. In the end, it was just decided they had no choice but to become a nomadic people, ones who had to scrape out a living through war and conquest. It was horrible, but then again, they wanted to live and there was no doubt that if Humanity had been in their position, which they well and truly would have within a millennia or two had the Kyzua not come alone, they would have done the same.

The two tried to lead their minds away from their past and focused back on each other, though Tesha still saw the concern in her husband's eyes.

"_We'll have to go now, Oken," _she told him.

He nodded. _"Right," _he replied and gave her a kiss. Both were quickly taken in with it and their eyes closed as their love for one another overwhelmed them. For a moment, they forgot about the world, and the few remarks they were getting rom any other families around them that had seen them, and tried to enjoy the moment.

"_No! No!" _Only for it to be spoiled when their daughter growled as she pressed the wrong icon on the screen and it went onto something else. Attached to the bottom of it was a small pair of headphones. _"Oh, why is it now working?!" _she moaned.

Oken stifled a laugh. _"She's been on that ever since Michelle showed it to her,"_

His wife chuckled. _"That was very nice of her to do that…though, she's like any teenager today,"_

_"True," _Oken nodded.

Yesterday afternoon, Jacob and Michelle had met Tesha and Lina for the first time and they had gotten on very well with each other despite their fears of one another in how they might react in meeting. Whilst Jacob had told Tesha about Human life and Earth and such, Michelle had shown Lina what Human children were interested in down here on Earth. One of the things that had intrigued her most was this MP3 player that Michelle had brought as a gift after having found it in a cupboard in their apartment, having been left there by the previous family when they fled the city. Michelle had tried to show Lina how to work it and she took to it and she actually enjoyed the music this person had put on there. What made it even fascinating for her was that this technology Human teenagers would be interested in was not really that much different from what her generation used. In fact, it was pretty much the same, there was little difference.

Though, the only problem was that Lina had trouble remembering where the music icon for this song she had listened to yesterday was and no matter how hard she tried she could not find it, which was getting frustrating to her to say the least.

"_Having trouble there, Lina?" _Oken asked sarcastically.

_"Yes!" _she replied annoyingly as she walked over, though not at her father's remark but at her failed attempt, again, to try and find this song. _"Oh, where is it!"_

Oken chuckled and held out his hand. _"Give it here, I'll do it," _he said.

His daughter looked at him in an expression filled with sarcasm, as if to say: _"Oh yes, you're going to do a lot better than I am," _which no doubt was in an equally sounding voice, but, nevertheless, she gave it to him. Oken used his finger to search through the different icons until he came upon the song she was talking about, which was an icon of a tiny microphone that had the words **Slipped Away **underneath it, and he pressed down on it. Almost simultaneously, the sound of the music erupted out of the earphones. It was a mixture of a woman's voice, or several by the sounds of it, and had the noise of several instruments playing in the background, possibly guitars and drums.

_The day you slipped away_

_Was the day I found it won't be the same_

_Oh_

_"Not too old yet, Lina," _he told his daughter, passing it back to her, almost laughing at the surprised look on her face, but after a second she smiled.

_"Well...thank you, father," _she said and embraced him tightly. He embraced her back for a moment before pulling away.

_"Alright, you two better go," _he said, nodding towards the ship, which was taking the last of the family members back.

_"Goodbye, Oken," _Tesha said to him one more time, giving him a last hug and kiss and set off with her daughter, who looked over her shoulder and waved and called: _"Bye father," _before she set herself on the headphones. Her mother muttered something to her about them, probably the music being too loud.

Oken smiled to himself and leant against the wall of the park and watched as they entered the ship and the doors closed behind them. The mechanical legs raised up and disappeared into the ship. Then, the engines lit up with an almighty roar akin to some kind of gigantic monster's. The craft rose up into the air and hovered for a few seconds before it shot up into the sky, heading for the ship above the city.

_"Can't wait to see them again soon," _Oken muttered to himself as he watched the ship disappear.

Unbeknownst to him and many other Kyzua, however, on the rooftops of many of the city's buildings, several groups of men with balloons tied to them and backpacks on were beginning to lift off into the air, quickly disappearing into the fog. Apprehension filled their minds as they went; knowing very well that they could be seen and this entire operation that had been planned for the entire world for weeks now could result in them all being killed and a major part of this operation going downhill.

What was to happen next was to decide the fate of the war.


	47. Reunited

**Twenty minutes later**

**Downtown Portland **

"Are we almost there?"

"Almost,"

Through the back alleys and roads of the city centre of Portland, Dr Cockroach and his three comrades crept quickly, dodging patrolling vehicles or any trucks or buggies that were on their way to the fighting on the outskirts of the city. In fact, that was what the group were doing now, hiding in an alleyway between to apartment buildings and waiting for the convoy of four oval trucks, all of them packed to the brim with Kyzua soldiers, to pass. Dr Cockroach, who was closest to the alley exit, took a step towards the pavement and leant his head out slightly, his eye watching the trucks turn a right corner ahead and disappear. With a relieved sigh that they had been able to evade detection, he turned back to the others.

"Alright, It's clear. Come,"

He led the group out of the alley and down the street, quickly stopping when they reached a small intersection to check and see if there were any patrols or roadblocks covering their path. There were not. They continued on, going down the next street and then turning left into another. If Dr Cockroach's bearings were correct by now, they were not far from the city hall, and their launch point to go up to the ship.

As they ran down the street, thoughts of worry began to fill Dr Cockroach's mind. What would happen if they were seen by any Kyzua? No doubt they would be shot at, but at least he was eased a little by the light mist hovering in the air this morning. They had been able to remain unseen by turning off their radios so as not to have their position locked on by any Kyzua, but eventually they would be seen. Even if they were not seen on the ground, there was an almost certain possibility that they would be seen on the ship when they got up there, or _if _they got up there.

Just as they reached half-way down the street, Alan suddenly grabbed Dr Cockroach and pulled him into another alleyway with a dead end. The others quickly followed them.

"Alan, what is it?!" Dr Cockroach half-exclaimed in surprise.

He replied by grabbing Dr cockroach's arm and pulling him towards the alleyway entrance and pointing out at a small skyscraper down the street.

"Look over there, you might see it with your enhanced vision," he told him.

Dr Cockroach squinted his eyes and looked at the building, trying to see what it was Alan was warning him about. He saw it after a few moments of searching. In one of the windows, which had a balcony, near the top of the skyscraper, he could see a light blue haze set up on the balcony with a red figure standing next to it: a guard keeping watch over the city. Damn! There was no way they could continue on the way they were going to their launch point now. They were going to have to find another way there, or find a new launch point altogether.

He retreated into the alleyway and turned to the group. "We'll have to find another way up there," he said to them lowly with annoyance.

"How are the Hell are we gonna do that?" Mike asked.

"There," Alfred answered, nodding down the alleyway towards It's dead end.

On the right wall near the dead end was a ladder that led up to the roof. The bottom of it was about six feet above the ground, which upon first glance was a problem for the group but there was a rubbish bin opposite the ladder that they could use to get up the ladder.

"Good one, Alfred," Dr Cockroach said to him approvingly.

They ran over to the bin and pushed it underneath the ladder and Dr Cockroach climbed on top of it and began to climb the ladder, which proved to be quite difficult considering that he was carrying a backpack with a helium tank in it, plus the explosives he had as well. The others followed close behind, them finding it much easier, though they did have only deflated balloons inside their backpacks.

As they neared the top, a drone flew overhead and Dr Cockroach immediately stopped where he was on the ladder momentarily, believing it might suddenly turn back and fire on them. One second passed…two seconds…three…was it safe?

"Hey, doc?" Alan whispered to him from below, causing the insect headed scientist to look down at him. "You alright?"

A pause hung between them for a moment before he responded. "Oh, yes! Sorry. A drone flew overhead. Just wanted to make sure it didn't see us,"

He climbed up the ladder to the roof, getting an amazing view of the city from where he was, which was probably about eight or nine stories up into the air, as well as the many large pipes and ventilation vents that ran across the building. Moving out of the way to allow the others on, he ran over to one of the main ventilation systems and put his backpack on it.

"Alright, let's start getting the balloons ready," he said, unpacking the helium tank and the balloons he had.

The others rushed over and began to inflate their balloons, each time though Alan looked around them nervously as if expecting a Kyzua drone or robot or…anything else that they had to suddenly rise up from below and start firing on them. The others, though not looking up, felt the same way. These balloons were bright colours and every time they inflated one, it made their position on the roof more visible and if one of the Kyzua patrols happened to see them, then they were as good as dead.

"Let's hope we get up there without any trouble," Mike said as he inflated another balloon.

"Do you think they'll have someone watching the skies?" Alfred asked anxiously.

"Probably," Dr Cockroach replied, tying the balloon he had just inflated to the helium tank to stop them floating away.

After a few minutes, they had enough balloons inflated and ready to get up to the ship. Dr Cockroach, putting the backpack on, tied the balloons around his waist and held onto the side of the helium tank and pushed down on it to stop himself from floating up into the air, which did work to a slight extent but it was hard trying to stop his feet from hovering a few inches above the roof. The others were tying the balloons to themselves and their backpacks as well. After a few minutes, they were prepped and ready.

"That all of them?" Dr Cockroach asked them. They all nodded. "Right," he exhaled, looking up at the ship with fear in his eyes. This mission was certain suicide, but it had to be done, and they had volunteered, just like hundreds, or even thousands of others around the world right now. "Good luck," he told them.

He let go of the helium tank.

At once, he began to float gently upwards towards the ship as if a giant invisible hand had reached down and grabbed him. Looking down, he saw Alan, Mike and Alfred take off from the roof towards them as well, all of them following him as they floated upwards towards their target. Even though they had gotten this far without being seen, their heart rates were…going into overdrive, sweat was running down their foreheads their breathing was getting quieter but quicker as well. Concern also began to fill their minds as well because they were one person down and Susan was someone they would really need right now in succeeding in this mission.

_Let's just hope this all goes well _Dr Cockroach mentally said to himself anxiously. _Otherwise, this will go down as a quick and failed operation. _

**Meanwhile, on the streets below**

Unbeknownst to them, their little floating tactic had drawn the attention of several of the Kyzua on the ground, who were now pointing up at these strange multi-coloured things floating up towards the ship with confused, and some concerned looks on their faces. What were they and how were they being released?

"_Make way! C'mon, out of the way!" _a deep voice barked.

A tall, burly Kyzua Sankiar barged through the crowd of Kyzua and Sankiar soldiers, his eyes also drawn to the strange objects floating up to their ship. In his hand were a set of binoculars that he had found in the apartment of one of the skyscrapers in the downtown area of the city earlier this morning and had been intrigued by them. Now, having learned what they were being used for, he raised them to his eyes and looked up through the small clouds of mist hovering in the air at the objects.

_"Those…what are they?" _he muttered to himself as he looked at them. _"How did they be released?" _He lowered the binoculars and went wide-eyed at what he saw.

"_What the…" _he growled in surprise, quickly rubbing his eyes as if to make sure he was not dreaming or seeing things or whatever and looked through them again, but what he had seen the first time that had shocked him was there. His teeth gritted in anger and the look of a snarl set across his face. _"Humans!" _

Many angry thoughts were rushing through his head. How did they get here when they were supposed to be pinned down on the suburbs of the city? Why were his men not succeeding in cornering all of them, they had families down here for Aristokra's sake! But a worrying thought quickly filled his head, overcoming the anger raging inside it. Were there more of them? If there were, then they had to find and kill them, and fast before they too launched and the situation that was arising her got out of hand.

Quick as a flash, the Sankiar dragon lowered the binoculars, shot round and barked out: _"Shoka mutinar! Rei ilona! KIE!" Enemy soldiers! Fire on them! NOW!_

As if on cue, all the soldiers around him quickly rushed to grab hold of their weapons or get to the radios to alert their comrades. Some who already had their weapons or had gotten to them quickly loaded them and aimed them up at the balloons. Nearby on the rooftop of the town hall, a pair of Kyzua soldiers rushed over to the edge of the roof with equipment in their hands and knelt down just a few inches from the edge.

They placed a circular platform down on the roof floor and attached a short and fat metallic, cylindrical leg to it. Then on top of that, they placed a long light purple coloured cylindrical object with a hole at one end and a trigger on the bottom of the other. Along the sides were flashing green lights. This was a _Voran 42 _plasma weapon, kind of the equivalent of the MG42 weapon that the Germans had used in WW2, only this one was obviously more futuristic looking and more advanced than that previous weapon.

One of the Kyzua knelt down behind it whilst the other looked through a pair of Kyzuakan binoculars, which were basically the same as Human ones but silver and could switch between thermal and night vision as well as normal vision, up at the balloons, getting a much clearer view of the Humans and the bug headed creature that was floating up towards the ship. He looked at his friend manning the turret and nodded. He pulled the gun back to lock it into place on the leg and aimed it up at the balloons, placing his finger on the trigger.

_"Goodbye, Humans,"_ the dragon manning the turret muttered with satisfaction in his voice.

**Meanwhile, several hundred feet below the ship**

Up and up they went, the eyes of the four men locked firmly on the ship as it neared them. They were already partially within the mist and, with an occasional glance down; they could see that the ground below them was blocked by a thin layer of the mist. Relief swept through them. Maybe Dr Cockroach was right, maybe they were going to be safe and get into the ship without being sp-

"LOOK OUT!"

All of a sudden, a wave of light red blasts shot past them into the air, one of them only just missing one of Dr Cockroach's balloons, which was enough to make him yell out in surprise. Looking down, he saw, just faintly through the mist, the two Kyzua on the rooftop with the machine gun aimed up at them.

"Oh my God!" he cried. "Try and steer yourselves cle-"

"Watch it!" Mike warned as another wave of blasts shot up into the air at them, one of them popping his balloons. He shook madly in mid-air, filling him with fear as he thought the strings tied to him were going to suddenly snap and send him falling to his death. "Jesus Christ!" he gasped.

"C'mon! Get going!" Alfred shouted in panic at his balloons as if that would help.

Another red blast zipped past his head and struck one of the strings holding the balloons that had been tied to his arm, the object harmlessly floating away into the sky. Another narrowly missed Alan's foot by a few inches. He struggled to try and wrestle his pistol from his belt but it was no use.

On the ground below, most of the crowd of Kyzua soldiers and Sankiar had found their weapons and were now firing an array of blue and red blasts and fingernail sized crescent moon shaped discs at the four intruders to the city that were floating up into the sky towards their ship. It was not really the sense in trying to kill them for fun or because they were trying to escape or anything like that. Their families were on the ship above them and they wanted to make sure these four intruders did not get onto the ship and threaten them. Though, to completely disregard the two previous feelings among the crowd firing up at the four would be ridiculous as some of the Kyzua there were quite content in using these four as so called 'target practice'.

One of the crescent moon shaped discs flew past Alfred's head and cut into the ropes of his balloons, detaching about three. Almost at once, he jolted to a halt in mid-air and began to descend.

"Alfred!" Dr Cockroach exclaimed in fear, but there was nothing he or any of the others could do for him because they were too far above him.

"Go on! Get to the ship!" he shouted back up to them, throwing his body sideways to try and descend on a different course to the ground away from where the Kyzua were. "I'll try and lead 'em aw-" he continued but was suddenly cut off when one of the blasts struck him dead in the face and his head cocked to one side resting on his shoulder. A second and third blast struck the last few strings and his body fell from the sky, disappearing from sight as it neared the ground. Dr Cockroach had to shut his eyes when this happened as the emotional distress seemed to hit him like a brick wall. This mission was turning into a disaster, it was falling apart!

Then another thought hit him, telling him to continue with the mission they had to! There was no way they could give up, not after getting this far. They _had_ to go on. He bit his lip and, concealing his sadness and terror that was flying through his veins at this moment in time, looked down at the other two, who were desperately pushing themselves sideways so as to avoid the waves of blasts being fired up at them.

"We have to keep moving, and quick!" he called to Alan and Mike.

"Look out!" Mike warned with wide-eyes and panic in his voice, pointing past him.

Dr Cockroach and Alan, who was about twenty feet below and to the right a little of him, looked and their breaths were caught almost immediately in their throats at what they saw.

Hovering towards them was a drone, It's single green eye had death lingering inside it, ready to fire on whatever target that presented itself to it, and that target was right in front of it. Three slow moving and virtually helpless Humans, or two Humans and a Human with a cockroach head if you were one of the Kyzua. It was a few thousand feet away, but within a few seconds it would be right on top of them.

"Oh no!" Dr Cockroach cried and began fumbling with the strings to try and release some of the balloons.

The drone came nearer, the whir of It's frame as it whizzed through the sky filling Dr Cockroach's ears. He managed to undo one of the strings, the balloon floating up away from him, but it was not enough to stop his ascent. His eyes locked onto the drone and grew wide as the green eye lit up a glowing green colour and that could only mean one thing.

"C'mon!" he growled frustratingly with fear as he tugged at the string he had in his arm, but it was no use.

About a second later, the drone fired and the green ball of deadly ionized energy flew across to It's target at terrific speed. Before Dr Cockroach could even blink, it exploded and sent him, Alan and Mike several tens of metres through the air. The drone flew past and quickly sped away.

Dr Cockroach was knocked out by the force of the explosion, but his eyes flickered and opened groggily. It was then he could feel the air rushing past him quickly…almost as if he was… His eyes shot open and he looked up and gasped. His backpack was gone and the balloons were floating away higher and higher into the air and out of sight. Oh no! That blast had cut all the string from the balloons he had on!

"AAAHHH! Help me!" a nearby voice screamed.

Dr Cockroach looked to his right and saw Mike flailing in mid-air as he fell. Alan was a few metres below him, but he was not moving. Either he was knocked out, or dead.

Below, the Kyzua soldiers on the rooftop exhaled with relief that the targets had been hit, though as they watched the three fall towards the ground, now just a little over a thousand feet above the pavement, they could not help but feel sorrow, but then again they were doing what they were meant to do, and what anyone else would have done if they were in their position.

_"Holy Aristokra! Look!" _another dragon suddenly yelled out from somewhere behind them.

The two looked and almost simultaneously were blown off their feet into the air, screaming and fell towards the earth. The Kyzua soldier who had been kneeling next to the machine gun landed headfirst on a parked car, smashing It's roof and breaking the car door windows, windscreen and rear window with an almighty crash, killing him instantly, the other who had been manning the turret was much luckier and landed in a large rubbish bin on the pavement next to a tree. The other dragons around them, however, were too busy running for cover or firing up at into the air.

Dr Cockroach could see the ground nearing him with every passing second, and in just a few minutes he would land on it with a horrible thud that would kill him outright. No doubt Mike and Alan would suffer the same fate. He shut his eyes and waited for it, though one thought of regret did sweep through his mind and it was painful that he was going to do with it still inside him.

"_I'm sorry, Susan," _is what ran through his mind. _"I hope you're okay!"_

"DOC!"

Suddenly, Dr Cockroach felt himself be pulled through the air and land on something soft. Opening his eyes, he looked around and saw that he was on…a huge flying orangey/cream coloured surface. He could see the wings either side of him beat up and down and the downtown part of the city race by. Alan and Mike were lying next to him, Mike sitting up and blinking his eyes several times as he tried to process what had happened to him. Though he looked confused, Dr Cockroach had a very clear idea where he was but even he could not believe it. Could this be…?

A hand rested on his shoulder and turned him round. Dr Cockroach lost his breath. Link was standing before him!

"L-Link?" Dr Cockroach breathed, unable to believe he was actually standing in front of him.

He nodded with a small smile. "You alright?" he asked reassuringly. "Me, Bob and Insecto got here just in time," he added

"Whoa!" Mike exclaimed as he sat upright and gazed around on Insecto's back. He looked at Link and nodded. "Thanks, Link," he said and moved over to Alan to see if he was okay.

Link looked back at Dr Cockroach and held out a hand for him. He took and he helped his bug headed friend to his feet.

"Yes, thank you, Link," Dr Cockroach said to him.

"Anytime," the reptilian ape replied. It was then he remembered something. "Oh, we got for you as well," he added, reaching down behind him and giving Dr Cockroach his backpack.

He smiled. "Thank you,"

"Doc! You're okay!" a familiar voice said happily from behind him and as he turned around, a blue mass suddenly engulfed him and a single eyeball looked at him with happiness.

"Thank…you…Bob!"

"I'm so glad you're alive! We thought you were gone and I promise never to leave you on your own again! Heck, I won't even let go of you,"

Dr Cockroach rolled his eyes but could not help but smile. "That's great, Bob. Now can you please put me down?"

"Oh, sure," Bob set him down and he brushed off some of the blue mass. "How is he, Mike?" he asked him when he looked up and saw him kneeling next to him, checking his pulse.

"He's alright," he replied. "Just knocked out, can't see any injuries,"

"Hey, doc?" Link asked, realising something. "Where's Susan?"

Upon hearing this, Dr Cockroach's eyes saddened and looked up at Link. At once, he began to become filled with worry.

"Is she…?"

"What! What is it?" Bob intervened worryingly, seeing the sad looks on his friend's faces. "Is Susan hurt? Is she hiding?" he began oozing around frantically, cupped his hands around his mouth and called out. "Susan! Where are you?"

"No, Bob," Dr Cockroach stopped him and sighed. "She's missing. We don't know where she is or even if she-"

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Four red blasts exploded in the air around Insectosaurus, who roared loudly and ducked to avoid them, throwing the others around madly, making them clamp down on his fur tightly so they would not be thrown off.

"Link!" Dr Cockroach shouted to him over the noise as several more blasts were fired up at them. "Tell Insecto to get to the ship!"

"What are you crazy?" Link replied, his voice filled with shock. "We're trying to get away from and now you want us to go _back_to it?"

"Just do it! We're going to bring it down! Now go! We don't have much time!"

Link sighed loudly, making it sound more like a growl, but nevertheless crawled forward towards Insecto's head. When he reached it, he patted it and shouted down what he had to do. Insecto too replied with a shocked answer but Link encouraged him to turn around and he did so, the huge creature's wings beating like fans in the air.

As the ship approached, Dr Cockroach gulped in fear. Even though they now had another chance to be able to board the ship, he still felt scared of the task that lay ahead for them.

_I hope this works. _He mentally told himself. _Otherwise, we'll all be dead._


	48. Confrontation between two leaders

**Note: Greetings, everyone. I would just like to apologize for the very late updating to this story. My other Fanfic I am working on at the moment is taking much more time than I thought, and wanted. Also, work has been holding me up and is likely to do so for a while. Still, I am posting this chapter just to reassure people that this story is not forgotten. Enjoy. **

**Meanwhile, within the cell hall**

Cradled into a ball, the gentle rhythm of Susan's breathing was the only thing that filled the densely quiet air within the hall; her head looking down at the floor as it rest on her knees. Being a prisoner of Kyzua, next to be a terrifying thing as she was no longer with her own people, was also extremely boring and sleep seemed to be the only thing for her to do apart from waiting for her food and water to be given to her.

For the past two days, she had been the prisoner of her home world's invading enemy and had barely left her cell. Upon first glance at this predicament she was in, many would think that she should just grow to her giant size and break out of the cell, but yesterday when she attempted it, she found her ring's power unable to work within the confines of the cell; and the Kyzua, probably through the use of some hidden camera device of some sort, had sent in two guards to stop her and had knocked out using a device they called the _Tulor_, which translated means 'Blanker'. Susan had had the first-hand experience of it when one of them opened up her cell door and used it on her, knocking her out completely. She had woken up a few hours later and found Taiko standing over her and he pleaded with his human prisoner not to try any further escape attempts or he would have to, regretfully, have her 'taken care of' as he put it. It was only when she was taken back to her cell that she realised that the ring was still on her finger, which, as it had done when they had captured her, surprised her greatly, but did nothing to lighten her mood and made her ponder over the question she wanted to answer desperately.

Would she ever get off the ship? It was possible as Taiko had told her they planned to release her back to her parents soon; when exactly she did not know but with her recent escape attempt going completely wrong it was unlikely they were going to release her any time soon. Also, there were the families of the Kyzua down here and it the likelihood was that they were not going to let her go until they had left. Plus, Susan had to take into account that even if, by some miracle, she did manage to grow to her giant size and escape her cell, getting out of this ship was not going to easy in the slightest. After all, alongside the ferocity the Kyzua would put up to defend their families, their weapons were dangerous to her and she had only just escaped death from a predator tank blast. Her only real hope was Dr Cockroach and the others when they launched the planned attack on the ship.

Though, that was provided they managed to board it without being killed.

As she snoozed on, the blackness that filled the entire hall, save for the very dim purple light emanating from the haze that was Susan's cell door, the sound of whirring began to filter in, reverberating off the walls as if it were coming from everywhere at once. Then, a blinding white light filled the hall; wiping out the blackness that had engulfed it like the Bible tale of God creating the light in the universe. A group of large figures stepped into the hall, which, as if on cue to their entrance like some kind of great welcoming for a leader, lit up from the walls, destroying what was left of the darkness. The light and noise swept into Susan's cell, making her groan as she raised her head, groggily opening her eyes. Her vision was a little blurry as she tried to adjust to her surroundings from her sudden awakening.

"She is awake!"

The voice came from her right and she turned her head in reaction to it. What she saw made her eyes grow wide.

Coming towards her were three of the Kyzua, one leading with two flanking behind him, but for some reason they were much different than the ordinary ones she had met so far. The leading dragon was tall, heavily built, which she saw through his pulsating muscles, and had this aura of a monster emanating from him. On his left arm was a silver coloured medal-like object. Behind him his two guards, both of who were smaller than their leader, had dark green coloured medals attached to their arms; signalling that they were all Sankiar. As they neared her cell, Susan, who was now wide-eyed upon seeing the type of Kyzua they were, began to back away towards the end of her cell, her blue eyes not leaving the three dragons as they stopped in front of the haze. The leading dragon chuckled at her panicked state and pressed the button on the wall next to the cell; the haze fading away into nothing. Susan gulped. They could now enter her cell.

The leading dragon walked into the cell, flanked by his guards, towards Susan, a kind of nasty grin forming on his face, which only made her more nervous. He stopped in front of her and chuckled.

"Well, well, well," he said in a kind of intimidating tone. "Look who we have in our presence. A human meat puppet!" and he spat on the floor next to her foot.

Susan looked up at him with fear literally filling her eyes, her heart rate accelerating to the point where she felt like she was going to pass out.

_Oh God, someone please help me! _She mentally begged.

The leading Sankiar must have sensed her fear because he chuckled and knelt down in front of her, his head still towering over her. She tried to back away further, but the wall behind her stopped her and she was unable to stop the dragon from forcefully grabbing her face by the cheeks; his razor sharp-looking claws digging into them. He pushed his fingers together so her lips were squashed together, like a parent would do when making a silly face to their child.

"I shall admit, you do have a pretty face, human," he said to her. "But your kind are not worth me," he added, letting go of her face, relieving her of the pain of where he had grabbed her, and stood up and muttered something in his native language to his guards, making them chuckle; but Susan just stared up at them, her level of anxiety now going through the roof.

"So, what is your name, human?"

She did not answer but just kept looking up at him with wide-eyes, too scared to say anything in case he did something to her. Unfortunately, this was not proving to be the best solution for after a few seconds of no answer, the look on the dragon's face changed from one of intimidation to sudden anger that seemed to explode like a supernova. Without warning, he grabbed her by the neck of her uniform with his hand and held her up above the floor to his face; the anger emanating off of him.

"I said; what is your _name_?!" he growled dangerously at her, gritting his sharp teeth.

Susan began to stutter profusely, the expression of utmost fear etching across her face to the point where she looked like she was going to pass out. Behind her, the two Sankiar dragons looked at each other fearfully, not really because of what their leader was doing to her, but because he was angry and when he was angry it was very dangerous being around him.

"Now, are you going to tell me your name or am I going to have to…_force _it out of you?" he whispered to her in a softer, yet more dangerous voice.

Susan nodded a little and managed to stutter out. "S-S-S-Sus-Susa-Susan! M-m-my name i-i-is Su-Susan!"

Now looking more relaxed that his question had been answered, the dragon loosened his grip on her, but still held her above the floor.

"Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, Susan. My name is Kosian. Come let us shake," he replied, holding up his hand to her, but she did not dare take it as if fearing he was going to suddenly tear her apart; which only made him angry again.

"I said: _let us shake_!" he growled at her lowly, but angrily, grabbing her arm, which made her gasp out in pain as it felt like the circulation was being cut off by his strong grip. "Alright, I shall do it for you!"

Gripping down harder, he pulled her arm up and down forcefully several times before letting go and, just as before, his face became more relaxed at getting what he wanted.

"There, was that so hard?" he said in a fake comforting voice and opened his hand, dropping her onto her arm as she hit the floor.

Susan groaned as she sat up, rubbing her arm with her hand. That hurt, a lot! Looking back up at him, fear once again took hold of her and she backed away to the wall. There was no telling of what she was going to have to go through next.

"W-w-what do y-you want w-w-with m-me!" she stammered nervously and she was met with a chuckle from Kosian.

"I am here to show you who is you're new leader," he told her matter-of-factly. He moved his left arm so it was in full view to her and pointed to his silver medal. "You see this? This signifies me as a commander of the city below. Thereby, I am in control of all creatures below as well as on this ship, so, in effect, you are now mine!"

Upon hearing these words, a sense of anger began to quickly take root in Susan and slowly rise through her. His! She was not his! More importantly, there was no way she was going to let him think he was in control of her!

She shot up from the floor, an angry look on her face, which did startle Kosian at first but he quickly gathered himself and looked back at her with narrow eyes but a nasty grin; which was not a good combination of expressions on him.

"Looks like someone has gained a little courage!" he commented sarcastically, which made him chuckle; his guards doing the same when he looked over his shoulders at them with a glare. He turned his head back around to look at Susan. "Do not try and think you can be a match for me, Susan," he told her bluntly. "You cannot escape even if you were to somehow get through me, which is very unlikely to happen, just as with your own people fighting needlessly on the surface below,"

Susan's glare deepened. "Don't think you can win so easily!" she hissed. "We're already dealing you severe blows to your army. It's only a matter of time until you give up,"

Kosian chuckled at her words. "I do not think so. You must remember, we have control of most of the civilian populations and with the new _A113_ order issued some time ago, all I have to do click my fingers and all the people down below shall _die_," he added a kind of hint of enjoyment on the last word as if doing that would be something he would relish in greatly; though it only made Susan more angry.

Without even thinking, she punched him in the face as hard as she could and to her surprise he reeled back with a roar of pain, slamming his hands around his snout. For a moment, he stood there breathing heavily and shook off his guards as they attended to him. Then he lowered his hands, revealing a line of blood coming from one of the nostrils, and looked up at Susan, a menacing glare in his red eyes. She had hit him! How dare she, how dare she do that! Oh, he was going to make her pay dearly for doing that to him!

"You…little…!" and before she could react, he stepped forward and pushed her up against the wall with his hand against her throat, almost crushing her windpipe and making her breathing almost completely strangled. "How dare you do that to me, you little meat puppet!" he growled at her. "I will make sure you suffer dearly for that move against me!"

He pushed down harder on her neck, which made her vision fade with every passing second. Her breathing grew weaker, her eyes flickered and her legs began pedalling the air as if they tried to desperately free from his grip but it was too strong. She even grabbed his hand and tried to pull it off but this did nothing either, apart from making Kosian chuckle again.

"So pathetic you are in your bodily strength. There is no wonder to how your kind have endured for this length of time," he said in a taunting manner to her as her face began to turn blue from the lack of oxygen.

"KOSIAN!"

The yell startled him so much that he dropped Susan to the floor, which made her breath a gasp of relief as she sat up, massaging her neck. Kosian and his two guards turned to see another dragon enter the hall through the open door, a look of utmost anger on his face noticeable to them as he stomped towards the cell. Susan looked up and relief filled her. It was Taiko.

He pushed past Kosian's guards and stopped in front of him, their exact same heights now standing off to each other, waiting for the other to back down.

"_What are you doing here?!" _Taiko demanded in his Kyzuakan language.

"_I have just as much right to visit the prisoners as you do!" _Kosian barked back defiantly. He looked back over his shoulder at Susan. _"As you probably can see-" _he pointed to his bleeding nose. _"-I had to punish her for hitting me!"_

"You brought that on yourself! You know that you are not to leave my presence, you Kishan!"

Upon hearing the last word, the look in Kosian's eyes changed from anger to fury and he stepped closer to Taiko, clenching his fists. Taiko, however, held his ground, his more dominant gaze burrowing into Kosian, playing his game that he knew he would win.

"_Go on then, hit me!" _he sneered. _"Try it, I dare you!" _

Kosian's glare deepened and he even half-raised his hand to strike him but stopped it and then released his fist.

"_I do not have time for this! I have other important matters to attend to! Move!" _he pushed past Taiko and barked out a command to his guards to follow; which they did.

The three Sankiar left the cell and walked over to the hall entrance. The two guards left first but Kosian stopped and glared furiously at Taiko once more before he stepped out into the corridor and out of sight. When they were gone, Taiko walked over to Susan and knelt down in front of her.

"Are you unhurt?" he asked her worryingly.

She nodded, coughing a little as she tried to regain her breath. "Yeah, I-I'm fine!" she replied weakly. "Don't worry, he didn't hurt me much,"

"I am glad," he replied in a relieved voice, patting her knee. "I must say, that was very brave of you to do that to Kosian," he commented approvingly.

She looked at him questionably for a moment, as if unable to believe what she was hearing, but then smiled back and shrugged.

"Well, he did deserve it after what he said," she told him, making Taiko chuckle a little. When he stopped, she looked at him with a concerned expression. "Is it true, though? Is he really in control?"

"Oh, Susan, do not take heed of what that fool says! He is a Kishan and I am glad you dealt him that injury. He had it coming to him, as you humans say!"

She nodded a little and sighed heavily. "I'm surprised you have to put up with people like him," she said sympathetically to him.

He replied with a sigh and a shake of his head. "So am I, Susan. To be honest, I would not care if he died now and if it was painful," he looked back in the direction of the door to the hall. "And I hope it will be soon,"


	49. Into the belly of the beast

**Note: Greetings once again FF readers. Once again, I have to apologize in advance for leaving this FF for so long because, again, my other FF has taken ages and it was only yesterday I updated it. Also, my publication of another FF and the adding of ideas to a third that I started some time ago have slowed me down. Still, as I stated in the previous chapter, I will never abandon this story and I hope to update it as regularly as I can in the future. I would also like to quickly note that I am re-uploading Chapters 47 and 48 to fix a few grammar errors.**

Well, that's all the notes. Enjoy

"Insecto, slow down a little!"

High in the sky above downtown Portland, Insectosaurus slowed down as he neared the top of the great expanse that was the top of the Kyzua ship hovering over the city; Link, Dr Cockroach and Bob waiting on the side of the giant butterfly with Alan and Mike. He gradually descended towards the ship with relative ease, though his eyes were continually searching the skies for any sign of any drones that might be coming out to shoot them down. They had to be quick in dropping onto the ship and then finding a way inside before the Kyzua patrols got to them or warned the ship to be prepared for any possible intruders.

"Alright, get ready," Dr Cockroach said to the others, a hint of anxiety in his voice as Insecto touched down on the surface of the ship and lowered his wing so it provided a kind of slide for the group.

One-by-one, they slid down it onto the ship and Link, the last to slide off his friend, quickly turned to the giant butterfly.

"Alright, Insecto, get outta here quickly before they get up here," he told him.

Insectosaurus roared something in reply, a questionable look on his face but Link held up his hands in reassurance.

"Don't worry about it, we'll find a way off this ship. Now get going, quick!"

Nodding, the giant butterfly took and flew away from the ship, quickly becoming a dot in the distance. Just in time as well because not even half a minute passed before a swarm of drones, numbering three strong, chased after him, determined to shoot him down. Link watched them go with a look of anxiety on his face but he knew he had to brush it aside. It was too late to do anything about it now; he was just going to have to hope for the best for Insectosaurus.

_He'll make it _he mentally reassured himself, following the others as they ran across the hull of the ship. _He did last time and he will now! _

"Alright, there should be a way down into the ship up here somewhere," Dr Cockroach said to the others, leading them across to the centre of the ship's top, searching frantically for a way inside. "There has to be!" he repeated to himself, though keeping his voice low so as not to concern the rest of the group.

Luckily, he did not have to wait long. "Hey, doc, over here!" Alan called, waving him over to where he was kneeling.

The others ran over to see a kind of dark grey circular door almost completely camouflaged on the surface of the ship were it not for a kind of metallic handle on the top of it.

"Yep, that looks like the way in," Link commented approvingly. "Let's open her up,"

He, Dr Cockroach and Alan grabbed it and, with all their might, began to pull it open. It was actually quite difficult because it was so stiff, probably meaning it had not been open for a very long time. Then again, why would it during an invasion? The Kyzua had often won their victories so quickly there was no need to keep watch on the ship's surface. Even now with humanity still a constant problem for them they had not bothered because their air force was virtually non-existent. Too much confidence was their problem and this is what it had brought them unexpectedly.

Eventually, they managed to open the door completely, revealing a long tunnel that led down into the ship, coming to an end on some kind of walkway about twenty feet below down at the bottom of a ladder. Where it led to, well they were going to have to find out.

"Right, quick, in we go," Dr Cockroach urged the rest of the group.

Alan went in first, followed by Bob, then Mike, then Dr Cockroach and last to enter was Link, who grabbed another handle, this was much smaller, on the inside of the door and pulled it down, it doing so more easily then when they had tried to open it. Unfortunately, it came down quicker than he could move his head and slammed into the top of it.

"Owww!" he groaned, rubbing the top of his cranium. "Gosh, that hurt!"

"Link, are you alright?" Dr Cockroach called from below on the walkway.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he called back and slid down the ladder to the bottom.

They were in a long corridor that was dimly lit by red lights every few metres, revealing the kind of dark grey/silver coloured walls and ceiling. Below the walkway was a kind of huge trench that went down as far as they could see until it disappeared into a huge mist. It was quite concerning to see that mist there and not the floor, if there even was one, but then again that seemed to be a popular design amongst extra-terrestrial ships; having large drops or trenches or chasms or whatever that if you fell into you were as sure as dead or would be trapped and never able to get out.

"Alright, now which way do we go?" Mike asked, looking left and right down the corridor. "Who knows exactly where we even are?"

"Ummmm," was all Dr Cockroach replied with, doing the same as Mike; turning his head both ways repeatedly as if hoping for something to suddenly pop up and point them in the right direction. "Let's go this way," he finally made up his mind, running to the left.

"And if this leads the wrong way?" Alan inquired, the others following the doctor.

"Then we're as sure as lost," Dr Cockroach replied.

Off they went further into the belly of the beast, directly into the unknown. There was no telling who, or what they were going to run into and without their weapons if they were cornered or seen they were as good as dead.

They would have to rely on fate to guide them in the right direction.

**Meanwhile, on the ship's bridge**

The bridge of the ship was a large circular room about forty metres across in length and width with four entrances into it, all leading out into corridors that connected it the bridge to a network that ran through the entire ship. The walls in here were a lighter silvery colour, as was the ceiling from where the light source emanated out from. Around the middle of the bridge on the floor was a large circular wall with several gaps between it to allow the Kyzua to enter and exit the circle and on the inside of the wall were computer screens and 3D holographic layouts of the ship. Directly above this circle, floating about twenty feet in the air from the floor was a circular platform with a kind a set of images and reports of the ship and the various parts of it hovering around the sides of the platform just above the edges, save for a small gap at the back of the platform. Several Kyzua were already on here, going over the latest reports throughout the ship and checking to see if it was in workable condition. Even though the latter duty sounded ridiculous, which many of the Kyzua here did as well, it was a duty they still had to follow. A smaller group of platforms carried individual Kyzua up and onto or off of the platform every few minutes, each one coming to a halt on the floor below.

The door at the back of the bridge behind where the platform was opened and Taiko entered and walked over to the smaller platforms, a kind of blank look on his face. He had just come back from the cells where Susan was being held and saved her after Kosian had come snooping around to bully her. Taiko had seen him off, much to Susan's relief, and left a few guard outside the cell hall entrance to make sure Kosian, or any other Sankiar did not try and come back to bother the prisoner again. Of course, like Taiko, the majority of the ship was unhappy that the Sankiar leader was here and just wanted him to go and bother someone else back on the ground rather than strut around on the ship as if he owned the bloody thing. But they could do nothing against him for he was a joint commander of the entire army here and, plus, it was his duty to carry out regular searches of the ships from the _A113 _protocol established here, something that Taiko really detested.

_Only a few more hours and then he goes _he repeated to himself for the fifth time, his wanting of Kosian to go boiling over. _Not long now_

He stepped onto one of the platforms and it hovered up into the air towards the bigger platform. When he reached it, he stepped onto it and another regular Kyzua captain, who saluted him, stepped onto it and took to back down to the floor. Well, apart from the drama that had erupted not too long ago today was and was likely to be calm and easy, and Taiko was looking forward to that as he walked over to the side of the platform and began going over the reports and surveys of the ship's controls, engines, communications etc. He would do this every day and it would take a while, usually about half an hour, but today when he was finished he would then go off to see his family briefly rather than go to the training quarters and train the new arrivals on the ship. His family were here as well and tomorrow they were leaving to go back up to the ship above the planet, something he was not really looking forward to but he would have to accept. Besides, it would only be for another few months until they came back down again in the following year.

"_Okay, weapons systems active, shields activated, interior communications at one hundred per cent, as usual," _he muttered to himself in his native language after about ten minutes of checking and reading.

_"Captain! Captain!" _a voice called, startling Taiko and several others on the platform, who looked towards the back to see a young-looking Kyzua soldier step off one of the smaller platform lifts and rush towards Taiko. _"Captain!" _he called, his voice filled with urgency.

_"Horl, what is it?" _Taiko asked the young dragon in a concerned voice as he reached him and gave a salute.

_"Sir, we have a breach on the top of the ship!" _the dragon told him. _"Ground forces have confirmed a large butterfly creature dropped several passengers onto the top of the ship and they have entered through the door on the roof,"_

Upon hearing this, Taiko and the other dragons on the platform, along with several others on the ground floor who had been listening, gave each other concerned and worried expressions. There were humans?! Here, on this ship! Oh, that was not good news, not at all! For a brief moment, all eyes on the platform and all ears below were towards Taiko, waiting for his order in what to do. He was as still as a statue for a brief pause, as if unable to comprehend this report being true, but he shook his head and cleared his throat.

"_Right, well order patrols out into the ships' corridors, tell them to be on full alert!" _he ordered.

_"Yes, sir," _the young dragon said and rushed off to the smaller platform lift by the side of the big platform to give out the order.

One of the captains, who had been standing nearby, walked over to the ship's captain.

_"Sir, what do we do once we find them?" _he asked.

"_They are to be captured alive, if necessary and put in the cell hall with Susan," _Taiko replied.

_"And if they are armed?" _

"_Then you and the men know what to do," _his tone was a lot lower on this sentence, almost sadder even but it was something he had to do to ensure the safety of the families on this ship. _"Order your men to prepare for corridor control and put the sections of the ship around where the prisoners are on full alert and keep the families inside their quarters. You two go as well," _he commanded to a pair of sergeants at the other end of the platform.

The captain and sergeants saluted and went off to carry out their orders, their captain heaving a heavy sigh as he watched them go. Never had this happened before and right now all he could do was stand and wait in fear to what the result of this search would be. He was worried, like all who had heard this, and who would receive the orders in the following minutes, of his family and men. Countless questions ran through his mind: How many of these humans were there? Were they armed? What were they doing here? Were they here to rescue Susan or cause the ship considerable damage?

All of them he just could not answer and it was extremely frustrating for him being unable to. He just wanted to know so he could easily put down this threat and-

One of his captains nearby drew his attention to his searching on the holographic screen he had in front of him and he seemed to be chuckling slightly. Curious, Taiko walked over.

_"Haito, what are you doing?" _he asked.

As soon as he heard Taiko's voice, the squad captain quickly changed to what was in front of him, not turning his head to face the ship's commander as it was now beginning to go very red, which was noticeable on his lighter red skin.

_"Nothing, sir!" _he replied quickly in a nervous manner and Taiko shook his head and walked away to keep track of this sudden emergency on his ship.


	50. The strike at the hearts

Going through the insides of one of the Kyzua ship was definitely something that was not to be recommended by the monsters, especially since the ship now knew of their presence and even if they did not, there was the chance they would head first into a group of Kyzua and a fight would break out. They would just have to keep quiet and hopefully try and find a way to blow up the ship and get off it before it crashed.

Right now, they were still moving through the dark and dimly lit corridors but now the walkways were thinning a little bit and they had to walk single file now to stop themselves from falling over the side. They still had no idea of where they were going and the fear of getting lost…well that was prevalent among all of them but they were still continuing on regardless, like some group of nomads hoping to find resources and sanctuary.

"How much further do you think we have to go?" Alan asked from the back of the group, his eyes occasionally glancing nervously at the chasm below.

"I don't know," Dr Cockroach replied, his voice also uncertain. "I think we may even be lost," he added.

"Hey don't worry guys," Link piped up, trying to keep their spirits and hopes up. "We'll find a way out of here,"

"Only if these aliens don't get to us first," Mike mumbled.

On and on they walked, the sounds of their feet pounding on the walkway echoing throughout the corridor. All five of them were worried about being spotted, maybe not in here but when, or even if they entered another part of the ship, and had only their bare hands or their pistols to protect them and with a bag of dangerous explosives parts on their backs it was easy to see why they were hoping to avoid a fight, but the likelihood of that happening with them was almost zero. They would just have to hope that there were no patrols and that there was a way which would lead them to a vital point of the ship to blow it up.

Then, after about another five or so minutes of walking down this thin section of corridor, Dr Cockroach leading the group suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, causing the others behind him to bump into him.

"Hey, doc, what's the hold up?" Link, standing behind the doc, asked.

"Look," the Cockroach headed scientist replied, pointing at the floor.

At his feet was a sort of small but wide section of the floor that had blocked out the chasm below. Looking on, the five saw that the chasm had ended where Alan was standing and now they were standing on a floor with no gaps or wide open spaces below it, meaning that they must have come to a part of the ship where there were walkways or corridors of some kind.

"Look," Link piped up a second later, pointing ahead to where a thin circular array of light was coming up from the floor. "You think it's a door?" he inquired with a hopeful tone in his voice.

"Let's hope so," Dr Cockroach replied with slight apprehension in his voice at going towards the light but with them stuck inside a huge ship and having found no way out so far, he was beginning to feel that anything to get out of here was worth the risk regardless. "C'mon, let's go, quickly."

They ran over towards the light and, upon reaching it, saw that Link's assumption was in fact correct for the light illuminating this part of the passage was in fact coming through glass around a circular metallic shape, giving the group a partial insight into a corridor below them. As soon as they reached it, the door suddenly opened up and a flood of light swarmed into the passage, lighting it up as if it were the dawning of a new day.

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about looking for a way out for too long," Link said.

"Yes," Dr Cockroach agreed. "Right, let me just check,"

He crawled out of the hole and onto the ceiling, his eyes taking in a long and wide corridor that was silver on the floors and also on the surface the doctor was crawling on with a kind of dark purple colour on the side walls. The corridor ran for what seemed like hundreds of feet behind Dr Cockroach, but it was only a few tens of feet long until it hit a turning in front of him. There were several more corridors leading off to the right, but where too he did not know. If there was one thing that stood out about extra-terrestrial ships it was that they were completely filled with a maze of corridors that if you took a wrong turn down then you were lost and likely to go mad with trying to find the right way again, and that in turn would lead to bad decision making, panic and eventual capture or death.

All odds were stacked against them, all were lingering in the doctor's brainy mind but right now he had to put that aside for the sake of the others as well as those on the ground right now. Turning around, he crawled back over to where the door was and poked his head back into the passageway.

"Alright, it's clear, quickly," he told them, promptly releasing himself from the ceiling and falling to the floor, moving aside to allow the others to jump down after him.

"Alright, which way do we go?" Link asked, turning his head left and right; his eyes taking in the different directions which the corridors led to.

Dr Cockroach did the same as his hybrid companion, his large eyes also scanning the different directions in which the corridors went. They could anywhere, some to a dead end, others to the engines or to the bridge or to the hangers or sleeping quarters; they could lead to any part of the ship which was a big problem for all of them. What was worse, with only five of them and many of these different directions, they could not afford to split up, especially without Susan here to help them.

His antennae lowered a little upon realising this. Susan was still missing. Boy, they could really use her help now.

"Doc? Doc?" Alan's voice suddenly called to him, bringing him back to reality. "You okay?" he asked as the doctor turned to look at him.

"Oh, yes, I'm fine," he answered quickly and cleared his throat. "Right, um…l-l-let's go this way," he said, pointing to the turning at the end of the corridor.

"Ya sure that's the right way?" Mike asked him.

"To be honest, not really, but it's better than standing around," Dr Cockroach replied and ran off down the corridor; the others, deciding it was best not to argue, following close behind.

**Meanwhile, nearby in another corridor **

Not far from the group of intruders on the ship, there was an intersection in the corridors which was the front of where the passengers of the ship lived, in particular the families of those who were below in the city. Along both walls of each corridor of this part of the ship were single metallic doors that held a room behind them for the families or the soldiers to live in. Rooms were a medium size and were simple, most having been occupied by only one soldier during the space travel on the mother ship or by those on leave. With the majority of them below, the soldiers that had previously occupied the rooms had left them for their families to live in. Not exactly a luxurious place to live in, but it was better than nothing or living on the ground for most of the Kyzua, though some still did not really mind, or cared for that matter where they slept just as long as they got a bed. It's funny when one thinks of this and realises that when they are so adapted to sleeping in comfort and are out in a warzone they would believe to find it hard but manage to cope fine when trying to sleep, but enough of this now.

From one of the rooms, a tall sky blue dragon, obviously a female, emerged. She looked to be in her late teenage years and at this moment was holding some kind of human device in her hand. It was an app and she was amazed at her toying with it as she ran her finger across the screen and every time she did so something new came up. She giggled with delight, having been given this by a human male on the ground. She did thank him, but she also found the encounter strange because he had told her that they had to eventually give in; the clarification of the term _they _being the Kyzua themselves. She had argued back that there was no way her kind could ever be defeated, possibly due to her ignorance she had answered this way but then again it was the truth. They had never been defeated so far ever since they had left their home world and even humanity, who was putting up a reasonable fight so far, had not managed to drive them off so she dismissed him when he refused to accept her answer. Still, it did leave an impression on her mind, one that made her think whether they were as invincible as they deemed themselves to be.

As she walked down the corridor, she was unaware of what was coming her way, completely fixed on this app she was using.  
>.<p>

.

"Doc, are you sure you know where ya going?" Link called to him from the back of the group as they ran further down the corridor.

"I don't know, Link!" Dr Cockroach replied for the sixth time, a hint of annoyance in his voice. "I just hope we a-ophf!"

He was cut off when he suddenly slammed into something hard and fell to the floor. A second object landed on his head and he saw it was an app as he looked up from where he was lying. The others skidded to a halt but made no move to help the doctor up; mainly because they were flabbergasted with that they were seeing.

"Ouch!" Dr Cockroach gasped, rubbing the back of his cranium, only for his eyes to suddenly see something sky blue beneath and next to him and, following them up a tall body of the same colour, he found himself staring at another pair of eyes that were staring back at him and they, like his, were holding a great amount of fear within them.

The blue dragon suddenly screamed, which told the group that it was feminine, and began kicking furiously at Dr Cockroach in an attempt to push him off her. Alan rushed forward and pulled him off, leaving the female dragon to get up and quickly flee, bellowing in her native tongue about intruders.

"What's with her?" Bob asked innocently, glancing from the female Kyzua dragon to the rest of the groups. "Did we scare her?"

"Yes, we did, Bob," Dr Cockroach replied in a nervous voice. "We need to go now before more of them show up and-"

Suddenly, a roar of something in an alien language down the corridor to their left made them jump. Looking down the corridor, they saw a group of six Kyzua males running towards them; their eyes filled with hatred and in their hands were fearsome looking weapons.

Link swore loudly. "Run for it!" he exclaimed.

"This way!" Alan quickly rushed past them down the corridor ahead of them; the others following suite, no longer caring where it was they went just as long as it got them away from the Kyzua, whom they heard bellowing behind them.

_TING! TING! TING! _"Watch out!"

All of a sudden, hundreds of projectiles the size of fingertips were flying past them, some hitting the floor, other embedding themselves into the walls around them. Alan quickly whipped out his pistol and fired a few rounds back at the Kyzua but to no avail.

"Save your ammunition, Alan!" Dr Cockroach told him as they wheeled left into another corridor, narrowly avoiding another wave of projectiles that flew past them and embedded themselves into the neighbouring wall. "We'll need it for la-oh no!"

They came to a screeching halt at what lay before them. It was a large blast door, and it was closed; only heightening their fear even more. They were trapped and behind them they could hear the shouting of the Kyzua quickening in its loudness. Oh, they had to find a way out of here immediately or they were done for.

Unbeknownst to them, another small door on the wall to their right opened and out stepped another light blue dragon, this one much smaller than the last, probably about 5ft 3 at the very most, stepped out into the corridor, only to stop on the spot when she saw the five in front of her, their eyes now looking directly at her as if they were intrigued by her appearance. Her eyes quickly replaced the feeling of confusion and shock with terror but before she could scream, Alan grabbed hold of her, wrapping his arms around her chest and slamming his hand over her mouth. His other arm held her steady around the stomach; pistol hanging on at the end of his fingers.

"Oh great, now what do we do?" Link exclaimed with fear in his voice as Alan pulled the dragon away from the door, having to use all his strength to stop her from struggling free from his grip.

"We need to find a way to get his door op-"

"_UDASHILAK!" _

The yell made them jump out of their skin as the pursuing group of Kyzua appeared at the entrance to the corridor, weapons drawn and fingers on the triggers, ready to fire when necessary. When, however, they saw the group of intruders in front of them, panicked looks quickly etched across their faces, bewildering Dr Cockroach and the others in his group for a moment until they realised why the Kyzua were not firing on them.

"Alright, back off!" Alan barked at them fiercely, pointing his weapon at them whilst tightening his grip on the Kyzua female, only panicking the males even more.

The others took out their pistols as well, aiming them with shaking hands at the Kyzua. A small crowd of unarmed Kyzua males and females began to gather at the entrance of the corridor, some of the women ushering their children away so as not to witness such a spectacle.

"So what do we do now?" Link asked.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of this," Bob reassured them and oozed forward, clearing his throat. "Hello!" he said loudly, waving his arms around to add emphasis in the hopes that they would understand. "_I_…" (He pointed at himself) "… Am! Bob! Of! Earth! _We _…" (He pointed to himself and the others behind him, who looked on absolutely dumbfounded) "… Are! Here! To! Destroy-" (He emphasised this with a punch to his hand with his fist) "-You're! Ship! Is! That! Okay?"

The Kyzua just looked at each other with confused looks, though fear was beginning to rise within them upon realising that their entire ship was now in danger with the possible weapons these humans and their…_creatures_ had in order to do so.

Dr Cockroach just shook his head and walked up next to Bob. "Let me deal with this," he said calmly, ushering Bob aside before pointing his pistol at the Kyzua. "Alright, now all of you, stay right where you are!" he barked, moving his weapon from one part of the Kyzua crowd to the other randomly in the hopes of deterring any who might suddenly charge him. "Now, do any of you understand English?!" he demanded forcefully.

For a moment, no one moved and not a sound was heard; save for the occasional grunt from the struggling Kyzua female being held by Alan. Then, all of the Kyzua's eyes fell on a small, stout dragon with dark red skin, thin legs and high shoulders, probably having been caused by the tense moments with the situation occurring here. He stepped forward, lowering his arm that held a kind of short, black coloured weapon that looked like three bubbles stuck together with a small hole at the end of the weapon furthest from him. Orange lights ran across the side and a small trigger mechanism stuck out from the bottom of the weapon where the dragon was holding it.

"I…I do!" his voice rasped, coughing as he finished speaking.

"Alright," Dr Cockroach replied. "Take all of the weapons from your friends! _Now, do it quickly_!" he snarled the last few words.

The short dragon nodded, glancing with fear filled eyes at the female dragon as he turned and began to collect the weapons from his fellow Kyzua, who were glad to hand them over to ensure that the woman of their kind was to be saved. When he was done, the short dragon turned back to Dr Cockroach, waiting for his next demand.

"Alright, now put them down there!" he pointed to a section of the floor between himself and Bob.

The dragon obeyed with a slight nod and walked over to where he had been told to go, dropping the weapons on the floor and backing away with his arms raised as if to say: _"Okay, stay calm! I'm doing what you want!" _Link and Mike rushed forward and took the weapons, taking one each for them and passing the others to Dr Cockroach and Bob, Mike putting one in Alan's backpack for the obvious reason.

"Now does this door lead to the bridge or the engines?" he asked firmly and the dragon nodded, along with most of the rest of the Kyzua behind him, "Then open the door!" Dr Cockroach commanded, gesturing towards the locked door behind them. "And do it slowly!" he added. "We don't want to hurt her!"

The dragon, who was now beginning to feel his heart literally pound his chest against the inside of his chest, making it feel like it would burst out at any moment, nodded and walked past them, eyeing the weapons that were now aiming at him with insurmountable terror. One false move on his part and he could be shot and killed right then and there. If, however, it was to stop them from blowing up the ship, then it was something that he would willingly do but right now he just could not find the courage to do so.

Stopping next to the wall that ended at the door, he pushed a part of it back, the section sinking into the wall, and it turned into a kind of mini scanning device with a hand, or in this case a claw, imprint highlighted on it. He placed his claw on it. A light ran down the front of the device and over his claw, followed by a beep. Then, the door opened, revealing another long corridor. Several Kyzua females and males that were in this next corridor turned their heads to see who was entering and were just as shocked to witness one of their kind being held hostage by intruders.

"Alright, let's go! You-stay right where you are!" Dr Cockroach said, pointing his weapon at the group of Kyzua that had chased them. "You-" he pointed to the short, stout dragon. "-come with us. You're taking us to the bridge! Try anything funny and you know what we'll do! Understand?!"

The short, stout dragon nodded nervously and followed them into the next corridor; Link and Mike walking backwards to keep their weapons trained on the crowd of Kyzua until they passed through the doorway into the next corridor where upon the door closed and they turned and joined the others, keeping an eye on the Kyzua around them, who quickly retreated back into their rooms or moved aside to allow them to pass. They were too afraid to intervene for fear of their own safety as well as that of their fellow kind, especially the female who was held prisoner.

"Alright, so far so good!" Link muttered to Mike as they went down the corridor, occasionally turning his head to make sure that there were no Kyzua trying to surprise them and that they were going back into their rooms. "If we keep this up, we'll make it to the bridge and blow this thing outta the sky with ease."

Mike nodded in reply. "Let's just hope Monger and the others are doing alright down there," he said.

Sudden shouting from up ahead halted their conversation as the short, stout dragon told several other Kyzua not to fire, gesturing to the hostage female, whom Alan now had by the arm and was pulling her along. She acquiesced in doing so, too afraid to do anything. The three dragons ahead of them, however, though they got the message not to fire, they did not release their weapons, only worrying the group even more.

"What on Earth's name are these kinds of soldiers?" Dr Cockroach muttered with a puzzled tone as they neared them, his eyes focusing on the light green medal-like objects attached to their forearms near their shoulders.

"They _Sankiar_!" the short, stout dragon, who was still walking in front of the doctor with his arms raised in the air as if he was a prisoner being led to an execution, told him, adding a tone of disgust on the last word, giving them a look of anger as they passed; which they returned but one of them chuckled at their shorter adversary, no doubt happy that he had been captured and, to them, humiliated in what he was doing. "You lucky they did not see you first or you would all be dead by now!" he added, looking over his shoulder at him.

"You can lecture us later, now keep moving!" Dr Cockroach snarled. "Bob, Alan, stay close! Mike, Link; take their weapons in case they do anything funny."

The latter two nodded and, after some quick but hard wrestling, managed to wrench the weapons of the Sankiar Kyzua from their hands and walked away with them, leaving them there to glare and curse under their breaths. The group turned left into another corridor; the short and stout dragon directing and leading them.

**Meanwhile, at the prison bay**

Within the confines of her cell, lit up by a small light that Taiko had activated something within the ceiling, Susan sat against the wall with her knees placed against her chest and arms wrapped around them, her light breathing indicating she was asleep. Her silver hair hung over her shoulders and her head shifted a little, turning partially on its side as she snoozed on. Her mind was filled with dreams…dreams of her, of everyone…being back in their normal lives, back when everything _was_ normal. She and her friends were enjoying themselves at her parents' house, all laughing and having a good time, no destruction, no death…and no war. No dragons from outside this world coming down and trying to…eradicate, enslave or devour humanity or steal the resources of the planet. She smiled a little in her sleep as she thought of these things. Everything was just right, calm and peaceful and tranquil. Everything was fi-

A flow of light suddenly filled the chamber as the door to it opened and a figure stepped in, momentarily blocking out most of the light as he entered and walked towards the cell Susan was in. His footsteps made her stir and, when he was about ten feet from the cell, she groaned and lifted her head up to see him approaching. A little more alert, she got up from the floor and faced the dragon as he reached the cell, holding a small silver bowl in his hands; the end of a spoon sticking out over the side. He pressed a button on the control panel of the cell and the purple haze quickly faded and disappeared, enabling him to enter.

"Sorry for waking you," he said apologetically to her.

"It's okay," Susan replied. "What is that anyway?" she asked.

"Dika," the Kyzua dragon replied. "A kind of…what you humans call…um…" he tried to find the word but it was too difficult for him.

"Soup?" Susan inquired and he nodded, relieved.

"Yes, thank you," he replied.

_"Ota! Where are you?!" _a voice shouted from somewhere out in the corridor. Both he and Susan turned to see another dragon appear in the doorway, this one with a more panicked look on his face. In his hands was a _Saika rifle_. _"Come, we have an emergency!" _he exclaimed in a fearful tone.

Ota glanced over his shoulder at Susan for a moment and then back to his comrade. _"What is it? What is happening?" _he asked in his native language.

_"Intruders! There is a group on the ship and they are making their way towards the bridge. Now come, we must go and deal with them!" _his comrade replied and quickly darted from sight, allowing the light from the corridor to flow fully again into the chamber.

Susan had watched all this with a look of curiosity and concern and now her gaze, still holding those same emotions, fell fully on the dragon in front of her. "What was all that about?" she asked.

"Just intruders," Ota replied quickly, obviously in a hurry. "Here you go." He added, holding out the bowl.

Susan sighed and clasped the sides of the bowl with her hands, staring into a kind of watery substance with a few visible chunks of…something inside it. The warmth of the 'food' went through the bowl to her hands and the smell was…well quite appealing, but so was something else.

"Hey, what is that?" she asked, nodding at the bowl.

"What is what?" Ota asked, a hint of annoyance in his reply.

"This, right here," she pointed to a small chunk in the bowl and Ota leaned in for a closer look.

Suddenly, Susan slammed her hand into the bottom of the bowl, sending it and the contents inside it right into Ota's face. With a roar of pain, he slammed his hands over his eyes and nose, rubbing them furiously in an effort to try and get rid of what Susan had pushed into them. She took the initiative and rushed past him out into the chamber and quickly pressed a series of buttons on the control panel, not really knowing which was which, but hoping any one of them would seal her off from Ota. Luckily, her efforts were rewarded as the purple haze reappeared over the entrance to the cell, stopping a furious looking Ota from getting out as he stood up and whipped round, his face still covered with the substance but no longer in his eyes, which were bloodshot from the heat, and began pounding angrily on the haze.

"Let me out, Susan! Now!" he shouted but she shook her head.

"Sorry, no can do! Not hungry either," she replied and turned and ran into the corridor outside the prison chamber.

To her surprise, having not noticed this the last time she had attempted an escape from the ship, the light that usually filled the chamber when the entrance to it opened came from the tops of the doorway, but the corridor she found herself in was the same as the others on the rest of the ship. Looking left and right, she now faced the problem of where she had to go to find these 'intruders'. Which way should she go?

_"SHOKA! REI!" _a voice roared from her right and immediately Susan bolted in the opposite direction, determined to put at much distance between her and these Kyzua.

As she ran, she glanced over her shoulder to see two Kyzua chasing her, both of them armed with large _Saika_ automatic weapons, which were mostly the same as the rifle types of this weapon but were slightly larger, heavier, had purple lights along the side and fired bursts of ammunition, which were tiny pebble sized but excruciatingly hot balls, rather than single shots. One of them skidded to a halt, knelt down and fired a burst down the corridor after her. Yelping she dived to the floor, narrowly missing the deadly balls as they flew overhead and embedded themselves into the wall at the end of the corridor where it formed part of a T intersection. Quickly, she got up and ran on as fast as her legs would go, still hearing the heavy footfalls of the Kyzua behind her.

**Meanwhile, nearby in another corridor**

"Alright, stay back! That's it, stay where you are!" Link barked at another Kyzua soldier as the group went on down the corridor, having now lost most of the Kyzua they had passed.

The short, stout Kyzua dragon and the female Kyzua were still being led on by their enemies and both were wondering how they would get themselves out of this mess, or even _if they would_. The question of whether they would be able to break free from the humans and the monsters hovered in their minds, but still they could not answer it, nor did they wish to because in order to do so meant taking action and with all the weapons now under their enemies' control, they would be dead within seconds if they tried anything. But still there just had to be a way!

Behind the short, stout dragon, Dr Cockroach began to grow a little restless. "Look, are you even leading us in the right direction?!" he demanded vociferously.

The dragon glared back in reply. "Of course I am, just be patient!" he snapped.

"Well, all this walking seems to have gotten us nowhere! I hope you're not leading us into a trap or deliberately wasting our time!"

The dragon did not reply but instead looked on ahead, only heightening the frustration and fear of Dr Cockroach as well as the rest of the group.

"I bet he is!" Link growled, racing ahead and pointing the ray gun he had at the dragon, stopping him in his tracks, making his eyes go as wide as dinner plates over the possibility of him being shot very soon. "Where are you taking us?! It's not to the bridge, I damn well know that, so where is it you-"

"Link?"

That voice! As soon as it reached them, Link froze and slowly looked over his shoulder at another corridor leading off to the right about fifteen feet from them; the others in the group doing the same, all of them perplexed. They…they knew that voice! It sounded like…almost…exactly like…

From the next corridor came a short white haired, blue eyed woman dressed in a black and orange kind of tracksuit with small trainers and on her finger was a small ring. Upon seeing her, Link, Dr Cockroach and Bob went wide-eyed; Mike and Alan muttered something under their breaths. The woman's eyes also filled with joy and relief when she saw them.

It was Susan.

"S-S-Susan!" Dr Cockroach gasped, aghast. "You're alive!" he whispered, almost unable to believe what he was seeing.

"Yeah, it's me!" she cried and rushed forward, embracing Link as he rushed forward and slammed his eyes around her, Dr Cockroach and Bob doing the same. "I thought I'd never see you guys again!" she said, her eyes beginning to fill with tears.

"Don't worry; what matters now is that we're all together again!" Link said, patting her back.

"Oh, Susan, I missed you so much! How could you abandon us like that?!" Bob cried.

Dr Cockroach, Link and Susan looked at each other and gave each other small smiles. Oh, it was glad to be back together again. There was no point in correcting their innocent friend of a blob.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, Bob," she replied. "C'mere!" and she embraced him.

"Oh don't you worry, Susan, I'll keep you safe! From now on, I'll protect you!" Bob declared, wrapping his arms around her.

Link and Dr Cockroach just rolled their eyes as Susan muttered: "Thanks, Bob."

However, with this distraction, two other members decided to act. All of a sudden, the female Kyzua swung her fist at Alan's head, hitting him in the side and sending him stumbling forward with a yell that made the group jump. At the same time, the short, stout dragon charged into Mike and, despite his shorter height, managed to send him to the floor, grabbing his _Saika _rifle as he did so. He swung round, aiming the weapon at the monsters with his finger on the trigger.

**XX**

Dr Cockroach, however, was ready for him. Using his quick reflexes, he fired a shot from his pistol at the short, stout dragon. The bullet slammed into its leg and, with a loud roar that defied his raspy voice, the dragon fell to the floor, landing painfully on his side and clasping his leg as blood began to run. The female dragon immediately rushed to his aid, though when she looked up at the group she froze completely, fearing she was next.

"C'mon, we better go!" Susan said, knowing that the sound of a gunshot was going to bring all sorts of attention.

The rest of the group, after Alan and Michael picked themselves up, agreed, but Dr Cockroach stayed where he was, looking at the two dragons with wide-eyes as if they were lost. Then he shifted his gaze down to the gun in his hand then back up at the dragons, disbelief and utter shock clouding his vision. It seemed to shut him off from the rest of the world around him because he completely ignored the calls of the others, their voices begging him to follow. All of it was blocked out by the single reigning thought in his mind.

He…he had…j-just...shot someone! He fired a weapon and…and it hit someone! Okay, it was not a human but it was still a being that could walk and talk like a human. Doing that made past memories fly through his mind, memories of the-

"DOC!" Link yelled, rushing over and shaking his cockroach headed friend harshly, snapping him out of his thoughts. "What's with you?! C'mon, we have to go!"

Dr Cockroach blinked a few times and then, as if realisation kicked in, he nodded. "Right, I'm sorry! Yes, let's go!" he said and turned to join the others, though he left them as well as the dragons bewildered.

As they turned into the corridor Susan had emerged from, they quickly found themselves stopped again, this time by the two Kyzua that had been chasing, who were now standing at battle ready pose about fifteen feet from the group with their weapons drawn and aiming directly at them, fingers on the triggers and ready to pull the firing mechanism and put an end to the intrusion for good.

"Oh great!" Susan groaned in fear. "What do we do now?"

"You can give up and we take you back to the cell!" one of the Kyzua growled, his finer tightening on the trigger.

"Or you can put your weapons down and let us go!" Link growled as he, Alan and Mike raised their weapons at the Kyzua whilst Dr Cockroach grabbed Susan and pulled her behind them.

Neither side, however, seemed willing to fire, making it obvious that it was now going to become a battle of nerves to see who would crack first in surrendering their weapons and, thus, giving the other side victory. All of a sudden, Bob oozed up between the two groups, a determined and defensive look in his eye.

"Alright, you aliens, you better listen!" he said firmly. "If you wanna hurt my friends, you're gonna have to go through me!"

The two Kyzua looked at each other and just smirked. "Very well," one of them said back to Bob and with that both opened fire on him.

For a few moments, the air was filled with the mixture of what sounded like a high pitched beep and a whoosh as a barrage of blasts flew out and impacted with Bob, each one sinking into his gelatinous body like quicksand. However, it quickly stopped when the two dragons looked on in utter amazement, as did the rest of the group, who had shielded themselves as best they could when the shooting started, to see the blasts merely dissolving away inside Bob into nothingness. Bob's friends grinned with delight and knowing that their friend was indestructible even to alien weaponry; the Kyzua, upon seeing this, gulped as fear began to overtake their minds.

"Wow!" Bob commented approvingly as he licked his lips and nodded. "Those were tasty. Can I have some more?" he asked innocently, now completely unaware of the situation he and the others were in, as he oozed towards them.

"Stay back!" one of the dragons barked as he and his comrade backed away nervously, quickly loading their weapons.

"Aw, c'mon! Please!" Bob whined, oozing after them. "I just a few more!"

"You stay back!" the second Kyzua dragon shouted at Bob, his hands now beginning to shake with fear as the gelatinous mass neared them.

"You better run!" Link warned them, smiling as he did. "He might devour you guys as well!"

That seemed to do it. The two Kyzua dropped their weapons and ran away as quickly as they could; almost stumbling over their own feet several times as they did so. Bob immediately grabbed their weapons and shoved them into his mouth, enjoying what he thought was a divine taste as they gradually disintegrated inside him into nothingness.

"Nice work, Bob," Susan said approvingly.

"Really?!" he beamed excitedly at her, but then his eye showed confusion. "What did I do?" he asked in a puzzled voice.

_VROM! VROM! VROM! VROM! TING! TING! _The sound of alien gunfire, which was akin to the noise of many mini-explosions, made the group jump out of their skins. Looking behind them, they saw another group of Kyzua, this time Sankiar, readying their weapons. Leading them were the three Sankiar that Link and Mike had wrestled the weapons off of earlier on, the former having obviously acquired new ones and were now determined to use them in killing these intruders.

"RUN!" Susan screamed.

The others did not need telling twice; they quickly took off with Susan down the corridor, effectively following the two Kyzua that Bob had seen off. The noise of the Sankiar shouting and firing the occasional shot at them from behind rang in their ears, making them sound like they were on some kind of wide, open battlefield outside. A blast zoomed past Dr Cockroach's head, almost hitting Alan once it had passed him, and hit the wall. A wave of the fingernail sized crescent moon projectiles slammed into the floor around the group's feet, only just missing Susan's foot by less than an inch. It was becoming obvious now that any hope of being captured was out of the window.

"This way!" Dr Cockroach exclaimed, leading them left into another corridor that held the entrance to the prison chamber. More blasts and projectiles slammed across the floor behind them.

On and on they ran down the corridor, etching closer to the entrance to the prison chamber; the Sankiar right behind them. As they ran on, Mike had an idea. He quickly whipped off his backpack and, holding it in his hand, shouted to the others: "Get ready! It's gonna be loud!"

"What do ya mean?!" Link shouted back, ducking as another blast zipped over his head and hit the wall to his left.

Mike did not reply but instead threw the backpack over his shoulder, hearing it hit the floor with a loud thud. Then, grabbing his _Saika _rifle and looking over his shoulder to see the Sankiar nearing the backpack, he skidded to a halt, turned and fired a few blasts at it just as the dragons reached it.

_BOOM! _An explosion lit up the corridor like a supernova, followed by a series of roars and cries. The light from the backpack blowing up blinded Mike for a moment and caused Alan and the others in the group to turn and witness the light disappear and the area around it fill with smoke as if the floor was on fire. When the smoke cleared, black scorch marks covered the floor and the walls and a large hole big enough to fit a small car had been formed where the backpack had once been. As for the Sankiar, their bodies were scattered around on their side of the hole; some of them groaning in pain whilst others lay completely still, quickly telling their enemies how to separate the living from the deceased.

"Nice work, Mike," Alan said positively.

"Thanks," he replied, giving the thumbs up.

"Okay, now that we have time to think and consolidate, we need to find a way to the bridge or the engines," Dr Cockroach piped up, his mind going into deep thought as he looked behind him down the corridor and sighed heavily. "One of them has to be nearby, it just has to be!"

"The bridge is closest," Susan informed him. "We're not far, it's just a few more corridors away," she added.

"How do you know this?" Link asked her eagerly.

"I tried to escape not too long ago," she replied, which pleased her when she saw his and the others' impressed looks. "I managed to get near the bridge before they caught me. It must have been something important they were protecting because there were more guards than usual and many of them were Sankiar."

"Well that solves it then," Dr Cockroach. "If we get to the bridge and somehow take control of it, we can fly this thing out to sea and then destroy it! Yes! It would be perfect!"

"Alright, then let's get going!" Bob suddenly exclaimed and with that he sped off past them as fast as his oozing, gelatinous mass would take him, only to stop after about twenty feet and make him turn back to the others with a confused look in his single eye. "Uh…which way do we go, guys?" he asked.

Susan rolled her eyes and stepped forward. "Follow me, I know the way," she said, running down the corridor with the others following close behind.

**Meanwhile, on the bridge**

"_Captain, we have confirmed reports of an explosion in prison chamber 05's corridor; source unknown!" _a regular Kyzua dragon shouted up from the circular ring of computers below to Taiko, who looked down over the edge of the platform hovering above the bridge's floor with a worried look in his eyes.

_"This cannot be happening," _he muttered to himself in defeat, rubbing his hand down his face and leaving it over his mouth for a moment as if it was stuck there. _"How can they do this when we have superior numbers and technology on this ship?!" _he asked himself with anger and fear.

For the last thirty minutes, he had been assessing the situation from the bridge, keeping track of where the intruders were going and what damage and/or panic they had brought. When he had heard from several Kyzua females about two hostages being taken, it had filled him with pure fright and left him continually thinking of the worst case scenario: both of them being killed. When, however, he had heard about the two being recovered and the soldier suffering only a leg wound, he was relieved but still determined to have these intruders captured before they caused any more harm.

What really worried him, however, was when he heard that Susan had been able to escape, _again_, and that really made him panic. He was extremely concerned for her safety; after all she was his prisoner and he had the responsibility of keeping her alive, as he promised her so as to reunite her with any family she had. Plus, with the Sankiar on this ship, in particular that buffoon Kosian, there was no doubt that if they got to her first before he or his guards did, then she would almost certainly be killed then and there. As soon as he heard of her breaking out of the prison cell, he had ordered every guard near it to go and recapture her as quickly as they could.

With another heavy sigh, moving his hand from over his mouth, he ordered in a frustrated tone: _"Give me a status report on where they are, now!"_

Those around him immediately complied, all but Haito, who Taiko saw was not doing what he should be on the holographic screen in front of him, and immediately stormed over, anger raging inside him, especially when he saw the smile and heard the chuckling coming from this Kyzua worker.

_"Haito, will you pack it in!" _he barked, drawing the looks of several other Kyzua around them on the platform as well as a few on the floor below. Haito gasped in surprise and turned to see his captain storming over to him. _"Stop looking at that!"_

"I…I'm s-sorry, sir!"

he stuttered fearfully in reply and was pulled aside by Taiko.

_"Honestly, you are here to do your job, you idiot!" _he muttered under his breath, but it was loud enough for Haito to hear, as he quickly replaced what was on the screen with reports of the ship's situation and the battle that was still raging below in the city as well. New ones sprung up every second about the battle below on the surface, but there was still nothing new about the intrusion on the ship, which frustrated Taiko even more!

_"Captain! Captain!" _a voice exclaimed in a panicked tone from behind and he, along with mostly everyone else in the bridge, turned to see another Kyzua worker hover up onto the platform. He rushed over to Taiko, giving him a clear view of the expression of utmost fear on his face. _"Sir, they are closing in on the bridge, they are only a corridor away!"_

For a moment, Taiko was unable to reply as those words slammed into him like a car striking a boulder or a tree at it fastest speed. They were that close! No, they could not be, what this one was telling him had to be a mistake!

_"Please tell me you are lying!" _he begged in a worried tone, but the worker shook his head.

_"No, sir, what I am telling you is true! They are on their way here!" _he told him, worry in his voice.

Taiko bit his lip, unsure about what to do for a moment as if he had suddenly found himself a lost and wondering soul that had lost everything and was now alone with no inkling of support or comfort in the world. What was he to do now with them so close? There was no way reinforcements would get here in time to rectify the situation so it was literally up to them, but would risking those on the bridge be a good idea either?

He then made a move that stunned everyone. _"Stay here, all of you!"_ he said to them firmly, walking past the worker and Haito, leaving them dumbfounded. Others around them as well as on the floor below began to mutter amongst themselves over his course of action.

_"Sir, where are you going?" _Haito asked his captain.

"_I will try and reason with them," _he replied, not looking back at him as he stepped onto the smaller circular lift; his heart hammering madly within his chest with apprehension and anticipation over the likely outcome of this encounter with the intruders. _"If I do not return within a few minutes, leave the bridge! Do you all understand?" _he ordered as he reached the floor and stepped off the platform, heading straight for the entrance to the bridge.

There was no answer, something he expected because of the sheer craziness of his decision. To the workers and soldiers on the bridge, whatever had caused their captain to even think, let alone commit this act of absolute madness was completely beyond them! No one had done that before, or at least no one they knew, and they least expected Taiko to do so, but then again this _was _the first time they had had intruders on their ship so it was almost instinctively predictable for them to react like this.

Unfortunately, Taiko did not get very far.

Almost as soon as he reached the door, it flew open and something slammed into him, knocking him and who, or whatever it was to the floor with a thud. A few shouts and roars of exclamation, both Kyzuakan and other worldly followed. With a groan, he lifted his head up from the floor to see a human woman with silver hair and dressed in a black and orange military tracksuit and trainers lying on top of him. Their eyes met and locked onto each other like a sniper and his target seeing each other.

"Susan?!" he exclaimed in shock.

Before she could reply, Susan was pulled off and, to Taiko's utmost fear, a large green, scaly creature with fins running along his back, webbed feet and was almost as tall as he was, grabbed him and pulled him up, thrusting an arm around his neck and placing the ray gun against the side of his head.

"Alright, all of you put your arms in the air!" he shouted angrily to the others Kyzua in the bridge, the others pointing their weapons at them as well. Taiko coughed harshly as Link pressed his arm against his neck.

"Link!" Susan said with worry in her voice. "Stop it, you're hurting him!" she pleaded.

"S-Susan!" Taiko gasped, trying to pull Link's arm off his neck but to no avail. "W-what is going on here!" he managed to shout, though his voice was weak.

"Link, please!" she begged desperately. "Please, don't hurt him!"

"Susan, we can't let him go!" he argued back, looking with concerned eyes at the other Kyzua, some of who had now grabbed their weapons, mostly _Saikas_, and had them locked directly onto them, ready to fire when ordered.

"You can't kill him, either," she pointed out, also glancing with fear at the dragons as they massed around the computer panels and above on the platform. "Let him go, I'll hold him!"

For a moment, Link wants to refuse, but he knew she was right. Killing the captain would only ensure their own deaths. Gingerly, he released his arm, still holding his weapon at the Kyzua ahead of them, waiting for what was to happen next. Gasping with relief, Taiko massaged his neck and looked down at Susan.

"Sorry, Taiko," she apologised regretfully. "But we have to do this. Please-" she looked over at the other Kyzua, all of whom were staring at their captain with concerned expressions as if they had never seen him before. "-tell them to stand down. We don't want any more trouble."

Taiko went to reply, but the words got lost in his mouth, completely overwhelmed by the gravity of the situation. What was he to do? Comply, or risk being shot and instigating a gunfight that would spill more blood on the bridge?

"Do as they say!" he said to the other Kyzua lowly, surprising them completely.

_"What?!" _one of the workers from above growled loudly in anger in his Kyzuakan tongue. _"You are giving up?!" _he spat.

"_Do as I say!" _Taiko growled back, silencing the worker.

The rest of the Kyzua, reluctantly, dropped their weapons, though the anger in their eyes was clearly blazing away in their eyes. This was not fair; it was not supposed to happen to them, especially on their own ship! How dare the captain make them do this, how dare he!

"Alright, grab their weapons," Dr Cockroach said to the others as they moved forward, Susan urging Taiko to go ahead of her. She went to follow him but Dr Cockroach stopped her. "My dear, it's best if you take off the ring to deter any of them from trying something threatening." he told her.

With a nod, she took off the ring and at once her limbs began to stretch in all directions as if she was being simultaneously pulled in every direction by invisible hands. Her eyesight quickly rose into the air, as did the rest of her body. The Kyzua around the bridge watched with perplexed and petrified expressions as the human girl grew from a five foot six height to fifty feet in a matter of seconds. When she stopped, she placed the ring in her breast pocket, gazing down at those on the platform with a look that was friendly, but also extremely dominating as well.

Dr Cockroach walked over to Taiko, still keeping his weapon drawn. "Alright, captain!" he said, adding emphasis on the latter word with an icy tone. "You will pilot the ship and fly it towards the coastline and out to sea." He told him.

"Why?" Taiko responded defiantly.

"Taiko, please, just do it. Don't make this harder than it needs to be!" Susan pleaded from above, kneeling down on one knee to emphasize her point.

Growling, he acquiesced and walked over to the computer panels, Dr Cockroach, Link and Bob following close behind whilst Mike and Alan ushered several workers standing next to the computer panels away to the side of the bridge, ordering them to face the wall. As the captain reached the panels, ordering several soldiers and workers to stand down when they wanted to intervene, he placed his hand on it. An orange line trailed down the computer screen, followed by the appearance of a holographic image of the ship above the screen with a list of directives next to it. He tapped his claw onto the directive that was named **navigational system **and the image immediately changed with an overhead view of the landscape of western Oregon, similar to something from _Google Maps_.

**Inside the hanger**

The hanger, a huge rectangular place that stretched on for about 400 metres and was ¼ of the size in width, had huge pillars one hundred feet or so going in lines from the back wall to the enormous three exits that gave any in the hanger an amazing view of the sky and part of the landscape below, was mostly quiet at this point in time, save for a few groups of Kyzua, mainly Sankiar, moving about among the many drones and drop ships that were parked in the hanger. Despite the prevalent threat of the intruders on the ship, most were not really concerned with it; in fact they were acting as if there _was no threat at all_. To them, they just thought that it was only a small group of humans who would quickly be subdued and put in the prison chamber or, better to the Sankiars' thoughts, killed.

At one of the drop ships in the middle of the hanger, Kosian waited for the remaining Sankiar guards accompanying him to board the craft impatiently, which was evident by the tapping of his foot and the look of displeasure on his face and the drumming of his clawed fingers on his muscular arm. Oh this was extremely frustrating! He wanted to get off this ship right now and go back to the surface where he wanted to be, not stand around up here waiting for some insolent fools to take forever in getting ready to leave.

_"Hurry up, you whelps!" _he barked at a group of four Sankiar as they rushed over from a hanger entrance, having only just arrived here after visiting their families.

_"We apologise, sir," _one of them, a dragon who had a dark green medal on his forearm and was the tallest out of the entire group, though still a few inches shorter than Kosian, replied apologetically to his leader, but Kosian took no notice and did not give him time to go on.

_"Whatever, now move! Come on, I want to leave now, not wait for fools like you! Go hurry up, get on board the drop ship!" _he urged them onto the ship, snapping at them vehemently as they walked up the ramp onto the craft.

All of a sudden, the ship jolted, almost knocking Kosian and the Sankiar on the ramp over to the floor. As they recovered their composure, they felt the ship was moving. Confused, Kosian looked behind him out through the large exit of the hanger and, sure enough, he could see that the ship was moving! His mind began to race with confusion and rage. Why was it doing this? Why was it moving?

_"What is that __**Kishan **__up to now for Aristokra's sake?!" _he shouted vociferously, turning round and, snatching one of the ray gun's from one of the soldiers, running towards the hanger exit, determined to find out what was going on at the bridge, hoping to give Taiko a piece of his mind as he did so as well.

**Back at the bridge**

"Alright, I have done as you required," Taiko said, turning to face Link and Dr Cockroach, who stood a few feet from him, their weapons focusing on him. "Now I ask something of you," he told them.

"Well, whatever it is, it can wait," Link replied firmly. "We ain't got time to play 'Hundred Questions' or whatever!"

"All I ask is: what is your purpose being here on my ship?" he asked them sternly.

"What did I just say to you?!" Link snapped.

"It doesn't matter anyway, captain," Dr Cockroach intervened, trying to settle the argument down a little to stop it from escalating into a fight. "We can't tell you and it's best if you don't know anyway."

"Why not?!" Taiko barked, drawing the looks of everyone in the bridge by now.

"Doc, it's best if you put a bullet into him!" Alan said from the side of the bridge. "He's not gonna listen to ya, anyway." He added.

"I can't!" Dr Cockroach retorted forcefully. "Otherwise, we'd all be dead!"

"Guys, please calm down!" Susan said from her gigantic height, trying to act as a mediator between the arguing individuals.

Whilst this argument went on, a Kyzua worker, standing at the end of the bridge behind a computer panel, opposite the entrance to the bridge, noticed movement out of the corner of his eye at the right side of the bridge near where another door was. Turning his head slightly, doing this so as not to attract attention from the humans, he saw it open to reveal another dragon suddenly halt in the doorway and press himself against the wall, clutching the weapon he had close to him.

_Who is that? _The dragon thought to himself, squinting his eyes a little to see if he could identify the individual.

Kosian had received a big shock when he saw the scene in front of him as he entered the bridge. A giant human woman, several other strange creatures, two humans and all of the Kyzua being held prisoner was not what he had expected. At the moment, however, and luckily for him, they seemed to be too busy arguing with Taiko to notice his arrival, something that he quickly used to his advantage. He searched the bridge with his eyes, hoping to find a proper target to shoot. Then, he found one and, grinning to himself, aimed his weapon at it.

Mike and Alan watched as Link and Dr Cockroach continued to argue with Taiko; Link pointing his finger at him as he shouted in an attempt to intimidate him into being silent, but Taiko pushed his hand aside and snarled something back, his face going very red to the point where it was noticeable, despite the colour of his skin, with anger by this point. Susan, however, was beginning to grow worried. Their arguing was going to increase the chances of one of the Kyzua here, or another that happened to come across them the chance to deal with them all at once! She had to stop this right n-wait!

She saw something out of place at the side of the bridge ahead of her and, looking up, focused her eyes on it a little more. Instantly, she identified it to be another Kyzua but he was quicker than her reaction to alert his presence to the others.

Aiming his weapon at his chosen target, Kosian placed his finger on the trigger of his rifle and fired.

"MIKE! LOOK OUT!" Susan screamed.

Too late. His screaming momentarily filled the air around the bridge as the blast struck him in the head, burning away at it. Then, his body fell forward onto the floor and did not rise again. The move had taken everyone by surprise and had silenced the argument between Dr Cockroach, Link and Taiko.

"Mike!" Alan exclaimed fearfully, grabbing his friend as he body the floor and turned him over, patting his face excessively, but to no avail. "Oh no!" he cried. "He's dead!"

For a moment, no one seemed to know what to do, as if the whole even had frozen the world in time like a spell. Taiko, having looked in that direction, also noticed something out of the corner of his eyes and looked to see his arch enemy standing in the doorway that led to the corridor. Fury immediately gripped him like a giant invisible hand.

_"KOSIAN!" _he roared furiously, making Link and Dr Cockroach jump.

Kosian looked over at Taiko, meeting his gaze of fury, grinned and turned and ran back down the corridor as quickly as he could. Taiko's muscles burned with a want to go after him, but with the situation here on the bridge, doing so would be a very dangerous and very stupid thing to do.

And, unfortunately for him, it was about to get a whole lot worse.

The worker that had first spotted Kosian had decided to take the advantage of everyone being distracted and grabbed his _Saika _rifle and fired a blast at Dr Cockroach and Link. The former, however, saw the danger coming and pushed Link out of the way and dived to the floor, narrowly missing the blast as it flew overhead and struck the wall. The momentary distraction caused other Kyzua, both on the floor and the platform, to do the same and grabbed their dropped their weapons and fired on Susan and the other intruders.

Taiko, however, had thrown himself to the floor, covering his head with his hands in order to avoid being hit by any stray blasts and bullets. Looking up from his position on the floor, he watched as Link and Dr Cockroach vaulted over the computer panels opposite where he was; blasts and projectiles striking the side they had been on just milliseconds before. Up above, Susan raised her arm in front of her face to shield it from the firepower of the Kyzua on the platform, amazed that they had been able to regain their courage so quickly in fighting back at her and her friends. Despite being fifty feet and most weapons having little effect on her, the blasts still did sting when they hit her skin and the same feeling began to affect her legs as the Kyzua down there began firing on her there as well.

Finally, unable to take it anymore, she raised her other arm, curled her hand into a fist and brought it down with a thunderous crash onto the platform, throwing most of the Kyzua there off to the floor. The platform, meanwhile, was hit so hard that it actually broke in two from the force of the impact of Susan's fist; one half hitting the left side of the bridge, the other falling towards the floor, directly towards…

Taiko was frozen to the spot as the other half of the platform fell towards him, his eyes growing as wide as dinner plates. He barely had time to even scream before this half of the platform slammed onto where he was laying with another deafening crash. A cloud of dust was thrown into the air from the impact and for a moment silence reigned until coughing was heard, followed by Susan saying: "Guys, are you alright?!"

"Yeah, we're fine!" Link, Alan and Dr Cockroach replied in unison, picking themselves up from the floor.

Cries of pain emanated from all around them as the Kyzua here struggled to regain momentum of them after what had just happened. Most of those still able to walk were now helping their wounded comrades, especially those that had been thrown from the platform when Susan hit it, or searching around for any sign of their captain, who, unbeknownst to anyone, was lying crushed to a pulp under the broken half of the platform.

"Hang on, where's Bob?!" Alan suddenly pointed out, causing several of the Kyzua as well the other monsters to look around frantically for the missing one in the bridge.

"I'm right here, guys!" his voice replied; a blue arm waving at them from behind the broken platform where the computer panels were. "You should check this out! This is awesome!"

"Bob, what are doing?" Susan asked in a worried tone, able to see a series of holographic images appear and disappear above the computer panel he was at from height.

"I'm hacking into their computer system, I think," he shouted back, by now drawing an array of shocked expressions from all of the Kyzua in the bridge. "Hey what's this? Self-destruct? Cool, we get to see explosions!"

"NOOOO!" one of the Kyzua workers nearby screamed, fear immediately overwhelming him as he raced towards Bob, jumping over the remains of the computer panels and the platform around him. "Don't touch that! You will destroy the ship!"

Dr Cockroach and Link quickly ran towards Bob as they, surprisingly, wanted to stop him from activating something that would blow them up as well. The worker jumped the last few metres and, grabbing Bob, pulled the blob out of the way, leaving him with a chocked expression.

"What, what did I do?" he asked innocently, looking from the dragon to Link and Dr Cockroach as they reached him.

"Oh no!" the worker gasped, petrified. _"He has activated the self-destruct!" _he shouted to the others in his native tongue.

Almost simultaneously, a deafening beeping sound rang out throughout the bridge as well as the rest of the ship and a dark red light blinked on and off with the sound of the alarm. Panic gripped the Kyzua in the bridge, many of them now leaving their dead or wounded comrades as they ran for different corridors, pushing past the intruders now, having forgotten about them completely. Several remained behind to continue helping their fellow kind.

"Okay, that doesn't sound good!" Alan commented fearfully as Link and Dr Cockroach grabbed the worker that had shouted out the alert and began shaking him violently.

"What was it you said?!" Link was saying to him, shaking him. "Answer me, blood boy!"

"Your idiot of a friend has activated the ship's self-destruct sequence!" the worker shouted back, his voice breaking and expression one of being aghast. "Now let me go!" and with that he kicked Link in the leg, causing him to yelp in pain and hop on the spot holding his knee, and sprinted past him, pushing Alan over, into the corridor on the other side of the bridge's main entrance.

"Okay, we better get out of here right now before this craft explodes," Dr Cockroach said. "Problem is: which way do we go?" he asked him in a concerned tone, frantically looking from one corridor to the other over the likelihood of them getting lost if they chose a random one.

"We better follow the way that dragon that killed Mike went," Alan suggested, pointing to the corridor on the right side of the bridge. "If I were him, I'd wanna leave as soon as I could after what happened."

"He's right," Susan said as she shrank back to her normal human height with the ring back on her finger. "It could be our best and only chance." She added.

"That settles it then," Dr Cockroach said. "Let's go, quickly now!"

They ran out of the bridge and down the corridor, passing several others that went off to the left, glancing down them as they passed to see more Kyzua, both regular and Sankiar, male and female, running frantically in all directions. Several regular Kyzua even ran out of a corridor as they passed it and _ran with them_, completely ignoring the humans even though they were armed. It shocked the group but they could not think about that now. Who knows how long they had left until the ship detonated itself.

Luckily, after another hundred feet, the mixed Kyzua-human group came across a large open blast door on the right wall that revealed an enormous hanger. The Kyzua that still not even given the human group a second look, barged them out of the way as they rushed on to join the mass of fleeing Kyzua as many drones, drop ships and other craft flew out of the hanger in a desperate bid to escape the ticking time bomb that would explode at any moment.

"Okay, now how do we get off this ship?" Susan asked.

"There's no fighters!" Dr Cockroach exclaimed worryingly. "If there were, I could hotwire one and we could escape!"

"What about that?" Bob suggested, pointing to a drop ship, though the only problem was it was already above the hanger floor and, like a speeding bullet; it shot out of the hanger as fast as it would go. "Oh, too late," he said.

Now the fear really began to kick into their minds as they thought of only one thing and one thing only: being blown to smithereens when the ship detonated itself. Oh, they could just see it now! Fires sweeping through the corridors like the flames coming out of the mouth of a dragon, burning and incinerating everyone and everything in its path, walls caving in and melting away into molten metal, the floor crumbling, all of them being burned to a crisp as it crash landed on the ground far below. They began to wonder if their bodies would ever be found at all or even if they would survive the explosion and cra-

"What the…?" Alan suddenly piped up in confusion, pointing ahead out of the hanger exit opposite them.

A second later, the drop ship they had seen leave the hanger flew down from above and slammed into the side of the ship, disappearing in a fireball that destroyed the entire craft and killed all who were on board; the remains falling out of sight to the ground below. Amazement was all that the group was asking themselves at that moment until a large shape flew down from below and hovered in front of the hanger exit, its wings beating effortlessly in the air. Upon seeing the creature, their hearts leapt.

"Insecto!" they exclaimed in unison, quickly rushing towards the hanger exit. Susan took off her ring and grew back to her gargantuan size, scooped up her friends and held them tight to her body as she ran at full speed towards the hanger exit.

"Hang on!" she told them, building up the momentum in her legs with every stride she took; her and her friends readying themselves for the coming jump.

Then, as her foot hit the end of the hanger, she launched herself into the air.

For a moment, they flew away from the metallic wall that stretched on for what seemed like miles behind them and across a blue sky dotted every now and then with the odd cloud. Then, they began to fall, the earth below, giving them a clear view of where the coastline was, about three miles or so behind them, and the many settlements and forests and such that were dotted along where land met the Pacific Ocean. Susan kept her friends close to protect them in case they were suddenly attacked or, by some horrible miscalculation, they missed.

Suddenly, she landed on something soft and rolled over, her friends tumbling off her body onto a furry expanse. Looking around, they saw it was the body of their monster friend, Insecto. Link was ecstatic as he rushed over to the face of his friend and began congratulating him on rescuing them as the giant butterfly flew away from the ship as fast as it could, hoping to put as much distance between them before it detonated.

Just a few moments later, that is exactly what happened.

**KABOOM! **The noise was like an atomic bomb exploding directly above them despite being a few mile away and, looking back, they witnessed the ship be engulfed in a fireball as more explosions erupted all along the sides of the craft and huge chunks broke off and fell to the sea. Then, the ship began to break, the extremely vehement noise sounded like metal girders collapsing in on each other, into several huge pieces and fell into the sea, some disappearing completely beneath the waves, others only half submerged with the rest sticking out of the sea like icons of destruction. Thick smoke rose from the remains into the sky.

"That's it! We did it!" Alan cheered ecstatically.

"Yes, we have scored a great victory against them!" Dr Cockroach exclaimed, embracing Susan tightly.

"Haha! Earth: one, Kyzua: big fat zero!" Link proclaimed happily, his words emphasized with the movements of his hands.

"Yay! Whoopee! Yeah! What was it we did again?" Bob asked, the happiness instantly evaporating from his body.

The others just chuckled as Insectosaurus flew back in land, heading towards the forests of central Oregon, leaving the smoking ruins of the ship behind.

**XXXXXXXXXXXX**

All over the world, the same scene was repeated. The Kyzua, who thought themselves to be so dominant and so overpowering in this conflict with humanity to the point where they believed no one could do them any harm whatsoever, had underestimated their enemy they had deemed redundant, impotent, weak even and, as a result, paid the ultimate price.

In London, the ship that had once been hovering over the capital of the UK fell to the earth a burning wreck, pieces falling from the sky and landing all over the city like meteors during a meteor shower.

New York was to witness something similar, though the ship had crash landed directly onto the island where the Statue of Liberty had once stood proudly as a sort of welcoming figure to any who entered the US by sea at this point, almost as if it were determined to destroy the very symbol of liberty itself before it was annihilated. All on board were killed.

In Rio de Janeiro, the Kyzua ship crash landed into the favelas in the mountains that surrounded the city, creating a huge fire that was bound to feed off the poorly made, easily flammable structures that had once housed people by the thousands. All on board this too were killed, as were many other Kyzua in the city below.

In Tokyo, Osaka, Shanghai and Manila, all four cities witnessed the same destruction of the Kyzua ships, each one plummeting to earth like a downed satellite, completely engulfed in flames and bellowing smoke as if they had been something out of a _Star Wars _battle.

It was the same everywhere across the world: Chicago, Paris, Rome, Moscow, Kabul, Tehran, Ankara, Istanbul, Cairo, Johannesburg, Sydney, Singapore, Toronto, Mexico city, Barcelona, Athens, Freetown, Dublin, Sana, Tampa, Karachi, Beijing, Melbourne, Calcutta, New Delhi, all these cities witnessed the total destruction of a large portion of the Kyzuakan fleet sent down to conquer the planet. The death toll was likely to be in the thousands for the alien species.

It was a strike at the heart, and, as Insectosaurus landed, Dr Cockroach commented that he hoped it would be a turning point in the war.

**On the Oregon coastline**

Despair, disbelief, anguish, hurt, pain, all of this was what smacked the Kyzua right in the face as they rushed out to assess the damage and search for survivors, particularly the families of those who had been on board at the time of the explosion. Everyone was alarmed, confused, frantic, desperate to get out there and search for their loved ones as well as any friends that may have survived, though as they surveyed the damage, the likelihood of that began to diminish rapidly.

Among the crowd that was on a hilltop witnessing the burning remains of what had been the capital ship above the city was Kosian, who had escaped the ship shortly after he had killed the human on the bridge. Next to him was the city commander of the regular Kyzua soldiers, general Duro, who was the same height as Kosian but of a much thinner build and had a lighter colour to his skin. Usually, these two would never even look at one another but now both stood there in disbelief, tears even running down the face of Duro, as they watched the rescue crews rush out there to search for survivors.

_"By Aristokra!" _Duro said, his voice breaking apart, though it was no different from the anguish and despair of other Kyzua around them, many of who were breaking down over the certainty of their family and friends being among the missing or, worst of all, the dead. _"They destroyed the ship! My wife! My son! They're…they're all gone!" _he wept, falling on his knees and burying his face in his hands whilst sobbing uncontrollably.

Kosian just stood there, his eyes wide with…oh the word was too hard to find to even begin to describe the feeling in them. He just could not believe that _they_, those humans and those…those things! They had destroyed the ship, and very likely everyone that was on it. It was horrible and too much, even for him. He felt a heaviness growing in his heart as he looked down at Duro, a real surprise considering the hatred between the two forces in their species. Gently, he patted his counterpart's shoulder and Duro lifted his head up from his hands to reveal his tear soaked face.

_"I know who did it,"_ he told him.

The words hit Duro like a bombshell and almost immediately the sense of despair was replaced by rage so vast that the word insurmountable would be miniscule in describing it. He shot up from the ground, his eyes now blazing madly.

_"Who?!" _he snarled vehemently.

_"The humans obviously!"_ Kosian told him. _"They and their monsters were here earlier in the city, most of your men and mine can confirm that. They snuck on board whilst I was on the ship and they had Taiko held prisoner. I tried to stop them but it was no use! They overwhelmed the bridge and, by the looks of it, activated the self-destruct and thus destroyed the ship!"_

When he was finished speaking, Duro's expression changed from anger to just…blankness, complete and utter blankness, which stunned Kosian. How could he react like this?! Even though they hated each other, this event had struck both of them as well as the men they both commanded extremely hard and…and this was his reaction to him revealing who was responsible?! It was unspeakable and unthinkable to say the least!

It did not last, however, as, to Kosian's relief, Duro's expression of anger returned and he yelled out a barrage of orders at the Kyzua, both regular and Sankiar, around them, telling them to get ready to move out.

_"What is it you are doing?" _Kosian asked him, a small smile on his face.

_"The humans have struck a blow at us and taken our hearts!" _Duro breathed with quiet, but ice-like fury. _"So we shall rip out __**theirs**__!"_

He walked off into the crowd of Kyzua, barking out more orders vehemently to those around them, telling them to prepare for their first objective of their new mission here on earth.

Well, Dr Cockroach was correct about one thing. It certainly looked like the war was going into a turning point phase, but would it be for better or for worse? That was the real question at hand right now.

**Author's note**

**Greetings fellow readers of this FF. I must exceedingly and extremely apologize for the five month and seventeen day absence of this story. Other priorities such as college work, daily life and other FF's just took away my commitment to this FF and even when I had free time I just lost interest. Now, however, most of that is passed and so I declare that this FF will continue on to its end.**

**I must also note that this is kind of like an end to a PART I of this FF (do not worry, there will not be a PART II publication on a different FF it will all be on this one) and now you will get to see the war take a new, and to some extent, horrific turn that is largely reminiscent of past conflicts in our own history. I will update as soon and a regularly as I can with this FF. Enjoy and thank you once again for patience, reviews and constructive criticism.**


	51. Retaliation

_Total war: A concept that is usually depicted as when all resources, both human and non-human, are to be utilized in the effort to emerge victorious in war. No war, however, is ever to this level but many come close. _

**Two and half months later**

**December 18****th****, 2011**

So much time had passed has passed since September 30th, the day when the war had taken an unexpected turn with the human offensive against the Kyzua fleet that hovered over many of the planet's major cities. The death toll was calculated to be in the hundreds of thousands, possibly even the millions by the Kyzua; many of these being the women and children of their race. This move had literally devastated the species, both physically and mentally for many on the Earth had lost everything that had been held dear to them; everything that they had loved had been taken away with the co-operation and careful planning of the human resistance fighters across the globe.

Of course, the question that had lingered in everyone's minds in the aftermath of the event was: what now? What was to happen now that this disaster had befallen the Kyzua? Would they leave and give up the entire invasion in the realisation that they were losing more than they were gaining; or was the fighting to continue until one side literally succumbed to the death and destruction and was eradicated completely?

For humanity, it was to be the latter and, to their dismay, they realised that their move, though it had stunned and demoralized the Kyzua greatly, was to only escalate the war from occupation and small engagements between the two sides to an entirely new level; one that was to change the very nature of this conflict forever. No longer would it be just small scale ambushes or hit and run attacks at one area and with the Kyzua and human civilians mixing safely in a city several miles from the supposed 'frontline'. Now the war was to become a conflict that brought in everyone and everything, regardless of age, gender, health or views; it was in effect to become a 'total war'. No longer would there be those standing by idly to watch what was to transpire whilst others fought; now all were involved and whether they wanted to, or even knew it or not, they were going to either live or die.

And the part of the war being fought on the west coast of the US was about to begin the first of many events in this new war.

**Timothy Lake**

Winter had not settled across the landscape of Oregon, turning the once lush and green forest into a snow covered landscape with several feet of it piled up alongside the roads as well as across the ground within the woods. The sounds of birds chirping, rustling leaves and small streams flowing within this natural world seemed alien to it now; all of them being replaced by a deathly silence as if all life from this world had been taken and this was all that was left. Snow hung on the trees like weights and the nearby Timothy Lake was frozen completely by the change in the season, just as it had been for the last few weeks.

Nearby, on one of the many roads that ran through this part of the forest, and that had survived largely intact from the conflict so far and had barely seen the war, one of the Kyzua trucks drove noisily down the snow covered path that cut through the trees, pushing the whiteness aside into huge piles as it went like a man with a scythe tearing through a field if crops. Behind it another followed, then another, and another, and another. Overall, there were twelve trucks driving down the road, followed by three Raider buggies; a mixture of Sankiar and regular manning the latter.

Within all of these trucks were the human civilians and captured soldiers that had been residing in Portland since the invasion had driven out or slaughtered most of the city's population. All of them were nervous and uneasy as they were taken to…well God knows where. They felt like prisoners being carted off to a place far away from the safety of the city they had been living in for the past five months or so; some even having the feeling that this trip was a one way one for all of them.

For the majority of the time they had been under occupation, life was largely normal, providing you knew the city well, but was obviously different with the presence and ruling of the Kyzua now in the city rather than humanity running it like it had done before the war. In fact, many of the humans had gotten on well with the Kyzua, unsurprisingly more with the regulars than the Sankiar, and well even though they were under a sort of iron fisted rule they were at least safe from the fighting raging beyond the city limits. All of that changed, however, on the last day of September when the ship that had hovered over Portland, not only as a place of rest and communications for the Kyzua but also a clear and unmistakable symbol of dominance over the humans that clearly told them: _"We are here now and we are your new rulers!"_, suddenly fell into the Pacific Ocean miles away to the west.

Following the aftermath of that attack, the attitudes between the two species drastically changed. No longer were there conversations between humans and regular Kyzua as there had been before; the latter 99% of the time often ignoring or turning aggressive towards the former. What was more; there had been an increase on the controlling of the human population and even on their own kind in the city. For example, before the day that the ship fell out of the sky there had only been one execution in Portland, a man having been in contact with a group of resistance leaders somewhere nearby, and that had only led to the confiscation of all radio equipment. Now, anyone who was caught even speaking in alleyways or trying to gather a group of people in the street was punished severely, though most of the time not really with death but with a beating that left the person, regardless of age or gender, black and blue for days on end.

What was more, no humans and Kyzua, besides the Sankiar unless they were high ranking regulars, were allowed onto the street after 6pm, this having come into force on the 1st October, not even a full twenty four hours after the falling of the ship, along with guards being posted on almost every street corner and if any humans wanted to enter a building they had to have a guard with them, this usually being given to the Sankiar, much to the man and/or woman's displeasure. A kind of control akin to a police state like the former USSR or Nazi Germany had come into place here and gradually it had been getting worse.

As mentioned earlier, the attitudes personally between the two had changed for the worse and, like the extent of control that had been issued onto the population since the city had been taken; it had gotten worse and worse. Often now there would be stories of harassment on the streets from swearing and name calling to things even being thrown at innocent passers-by. Attacks were often a regular occurrence up until a few days ago, some of them being fatal and there was literally no help for them at all; the Kyzua refusing any medical assistance to the injured humans. What only served to worsen this was that the already strong hatred between the regulars and Sankiar had suddenly gone up ten-fold after their ship was destroyed and the anger was very much taken out on the humans. Any hope of a revival or at least the continuation of a sort of friendship between the two species had been almost completely eradicated and, as a result, humanity within Portland was paying the price.

All of that, however, had suddenly stopped a few days ago when for some strange reason more trucks began to arrive in the city and just last night everyone was packed into them and taken out of the city and into the surrounding countryside and then, about ten miles or so back, they had all broken away from each other into different groups, but all were proceeding to the same destination: Timothy Lake.

Within the third truck from the back, a young man with short blonde hair, a white t-shirt and faded jeans sat on the bench that ran along the inside of the oval truck between a heavily built Kyzua Sankiar and a woman holding a small four year old child in her arms, a young girl who was fast asleep. His name was Ricky, a former shop owner in a small town to the south of Portland who had been found unconscious under the rubble of where he had worked and brought here by the Kyzua not too long after the war had started.

Around him were many others, a mixture of Kyzua and human, but all were silent. Many of them held emotionless expressions on their faces; a few of the remainder holding concerned or even downright terrified looks. None of them knew where they were going, but most had decided not to let that get to them and just wanted to wait and see where this would take them; though, ironically, that was not serving to help them either.

THUD! The truck bumped a little as it hit a pothole in the road hidden by the snow, momentarily throwing the occupants around as if they were inside a ship on the high seas but still no one said a word as if the event had been non-existent to them, they just kept on waiting with expressionless gazes for what was to happen. Ricky sighed lowly and rubbed his thumb and forefinger across his eyes, both meeting each other at the top of his nose; he lost in thought over why this was happening. Why had they suddenly decided to pack everyone into trucks and take them out of the city? Why had the convoy split up so suddenly not too long ago? Why were they even here at Timothy Lake, the now frozen waterhole of Oregon? None of it made any sense no matter how hard he thought.

Just then, he felt the truck turn sharply to the left and, looking past the heads of a standing soldier and three Kyzua regulars out through the rear entrance, he saw the scene change from the truck behind them driving up a ploughed through road with walls of snow on either side in front of the trees of the forest to a sudden blanket of woodland. The truck that had been following them had gone on in another direction but not too far behind was one of the buggies; the Sankiar manning the turret glaring menacingly at someone in the truck whilst the driver, a regular, went on with an expressionless face like a zombie.

_Where are we going? _Was what ran through Ricky's head countless times but he could not answer it. If it was to the left, then it was likely towards the lake. (He knew the area around it pretty well) Why? What was so important about it to their journey?

Those in the back of the truck felt it gradually slow to a halt, coming out of the woods onto a small embankment next to the frozen lake that stretched on for what seemed like miles ahead of the two Kyzua driving the truck as they disembarked the vehicle. One of them, wielding a large, metallic cylindrical object that was about six feet long and resembled a kind of staff from a fantasy film, walked over to the ice and struck it several times, the end of the object easily breaking through it into the frozen surface below. Further along to the left and right of him, more of the trucks came to a halt and their drivers got out.

The front passenger Kyzua walked to the back of the truck and said something in his native language to the Kyzua regular; who nodded and looked over his shoulder at those behind him. "Everyone out." he said nonchalantly as he stepped down onto the frozen surface below, the cold running up through his body like the temperature rising in a thermometer.

Ricky, pulling himself to his feet, stepped down onto the ground, his shoes crunching loudly against the snow and followed the crowd of people past the truck towards the river, all of them watching the growing hole on the ice with mild curiosity. What none of them failed to notice, however, was that the buggy behind them was moving up alongside the truck and the other Kyzua on foot, all of whom were shivering from the cold, were reaching into the back or fronts of the trucks.

Ricky, his arms wrapped around himself as he had no coat, stepped over to the shore of the lake and knelt down, his body shivering madly as the cold swept through his jeans and into his skin, right to the bones. He lowered a shaking hand and scooped up a handful of water from the lake and drank it, his body savouring the liquid. It had been a while since he had last drunk anything at all and, as he scooped down for more, he looked up at the surrounding landscape, taking in the distant forest across the frozen lake. He felt like they were in Siberia or Antarctica despite having lived through winters like these most of his life. Then again, this was the first time he had been outside with springtime clothes, no coat and not at home by the warmth of a fire.

"_AAAHHHHH!" _That sound made his heart stop dead. It was…it sounded like…a scream? He stood up, his ears and eyes now fully alert like a gazelle on the savannah, searching the world around him for any sign of where it had originated from.

_"AAAAHHHHH! NOOOOOOO!" _There it was again, only this time it sounded much closer and he could hear blast fire mixing in with it as well. Several others were becoming aware of it now, all of them confused but some were worried as well. Ricky was also concerned. Why were they hearing these sounds? What was the point of them? There just did not seem to be any reason for them to start happening!

Unless… Unless the Kyzua were… His eyes snapped open in terror.

_Oh no! _his mind went into terror mode, now urging him to run and get away as fast as he could.

But just as he realised what was going on, the sound of a gasp from behind caused him and others to turn to see a line of Kyzua standing either side of the buggy; the Sankiar manning the vehicle's turret aiming it directly at them. All of those on foot also had their weapons drawn, aiming them directly at them. For a brief moment, no one moved and not a sound was heard, as if time itself had frozen completely.

Then, the woman with the child cried out and not even a second passed before the shooting started all along this part of the embankment.

It was obvious now what course the war had taken and that there were likely to be many more deaths other than those on the frontlines before it was over.


	52. The winter woods

**The next day**

**Several miles north of Timothy Lake between it and Government Camp**

Cold. That was all that was felt around this part of Oregon, as it was everywhere; sheer, bloody cold. In fact, freezing was the better word to use in describing this sort of landscape as the snow continued to fall from the fog that hung in the air above and around the forest, creeping through the trees like some kind of silent killer on the prowl. The snow was already a few feet deep and all the trees were bare as if they had never been alive at all during the duration of the year. Icicles were hanging off the large branches that stuck out from the trees and across the ground there were small paths of footprints that led off in different directions.

Among one of the many paths of footprints were large claw shaped imprints, many of them partially ruined by the snow collapsing around what would be the toes of the foot. They were mostly new and just a few metres further into the forest a large figure trekked. It was one of the Kyzua, a regular t be exact. His feet were frozen and he was shivering madly as if he was on some kind of machine that had been turned to full power. He coughed loudly, one arm clamped around his body, which would not surprise him if he found it had been frozen there; the other arm was holding a _Saika _rifle but it was only just hanging on to his fingers as he walked through the snow.

On and on the Kyzua soldier walked; his eyes bloodshot not only from their natural colour, but also from lack of sleep due to the difficulty in trying to sleep in such freezing conditions. He was also thin, much more so than he normally was as he was naturally tall and skinny. He had not eaten properly for a while now and this weather, something that the Kyzua had not expected at all, did not make things better for supply deliveries. In fact, the very word _supply_ was almost sacred to him now because they were almost non-existent back at his camp. Then again, it was the same thing everywhere else.

It had all started not too long ago. Shortly after the global destruction of their ships, killing many of their kind in their thousands both within the craft as well as on the ground, the High Command leaders of the invasion had discovered, but had not explained this fully to the Supreme Leader on board the mother ship hovering above the planet, that when the main ships were destroyed, so were many of the harvesters, these being the craft that had hovered out into the wilderness of the planet and collected much of the natural landscape and the life that dwelled within it to be used as food later on. As a result, rationing was quickly enforced and both the Kyzua and the humans that lived within the cities as prisoners were affected by it, the latter especially as there was little chance of them being top priority in receiving food. The events on the last day of September had highlighted that clearly.

It was not enough to implement rationing, however, because soon afterwards the weather had changed and now most of the lush, green vegetation and animals that had fed the Kyzua was continuing its natural way of life at this time of year. Leaves were shed, bushes and forests lost their colours of green, brown, orange and red until there was nothing but the skeletal, wooden remains left to see out winter to the end and the majority of the animals had gone into hibernation or had migrated. What was worse, the Kyzua had fewer harvesters left and because most had been destroyed months ago, the commanders were less than happy, in fact they were almost petrified to send them out and run the risk of being destroyed, only serving to worsen the food crisis even more. Now that winter had begun to settle in, there were certain 'restrictions' or 'limitations', to use the words that this Kyzua soldier had heard be used not too long ago, imposed to stave off the threat of near famine until the weather changed. No longer would Kyzua forces be receiving their food daily as they had done at all; in fact they were lucky if they got it at least once _every week_!

Grunting in displeasure, his stomach aching with lack of food and his mind buzzing with the thought of food, the Kyzua soldier moved on through the forest, the sound of snow crunching loudly under his bare feet. His eyes were searching every bit of the frozen wilderness around him. At a first glance, many would presume that he was a lone patroller guarding the outskirts of some important area of the Kyzua. However, a lone soldier doing so in hostile territory was almost a certain death sentence and that was not what this one was doing. In fact, he was on a 'personal mission' of his own so to speak, and it involved a secluded spot and a hole in the ground. Now of course, many would think that the entire place was rather secluded but the soldier knew better and was glancing left and right every few feet to try and ease the feeling of him being watched.

Finally stopping in a small opening between four trees, leaving an opening that gave him a good view of the cloudy sky above, the Kyzua soldier stopped and placed his rifle against the side of a tree. Then, with one final glance at his surroundings to make sure that he was alone, he began to dig a hole, his large arms throwing up clouds of snow, forming a kind of mound behind and to the sides of him. He kept it small in width as he went, but wanted to make sure that it was quite deep so that any of his comrades who walked through here later on did not have to incur the embarrassment of standing where this hole was. After a few seconds he was done and, quickly wiping the perspiration off his forehead with the back of his hand, he bent low, trying to relax his body so he could-

_CLICK! _The sound echoed throughout the silent forest and the Kyzua soldier froze in position, his eyes now as wide as dinner plates. Slowly, he turned his head to look over his shoulder and, sure enough, there were three humans standing there; well _two _to be exact. The third had a human body but a large, cockroach head. The soldier momentarily thought back to past comrades who had told stories of meeting 'strange creatures' fighting alongside the humans against them but he had dismissed them as hallucinations and just worthless crap. Now, of course, he was wishing that he had listened.

"Alright, blood boy, hands up!" one of the humans, a soldier with short brown hair and green eyes and was broad around the shoulders and chest, said, aiming his weapon, an M16 rifle, at him. He had a backpack on as well.

For a moment, the Kyzua dragon did not move or reply, his eyes nervously considering the correct reply. It was not that he was trying to find a quick way of grabbing his rifle, it was that … well, it was the reason he was in this hole that … well, stopped him.

"Well, are you gonna get out?" the second human, a woman dressed in a thick winter's outfit with black hair, blue eyes and a cold stare that seemed to put the landscape around it to shame, snapped at him.

"I … I cannot," the Kyzua replied apprehensively.

"Why?" the male soldier asked, a hint of demand in his voice.

"Because I … Well, I am ..." he nodded down at the hole and they understood.

"Alright, but get it over with!" the woman replied, turning away in disgust, but stopped. "Oh, and here!" she added, opening the backpack and taking out a roll of toilet paper and tossing it to him. It landed on the ground and threw some snow into the hole, some of which hit his body and made him shiver. "Don't use it all, we don't have a lot of it!"

He just glared at her as he took the roll and shook his head as he squatted down on the hole again, muttering something under his breath. No doubt an invective, but they did not care. He was now their prisoner.

"I think we'll take this as well," Dr Cockroach said, walking up to the tree where the rifle was and grabbing the weapon in his hands.

Several minutes passed before the Kyzua was done and as he used his foot to push the snow back into where it had been dug out of, the woman had made him place both hands on his head and frogmarched him ahead of her; the two men following in tow.

"Here, Scarlett," the man said, offering her his rifle, which she took. "Use it to make sure he stays a good boy,"

"Thanks, Tom," Scarlett replied, pointing it at the back of the dragon and keeping one finger on the firing mechanism, ready to put a few bullets into him if he tried to attack her.

Dr Cockroach watched all this as he walked with them and shifted his gaze to the surrounding wilderness, or the surrounding frozen wasteland as it was to be correctly called. This was not the first time they had ventured out here to capture any lone Kyzua; it was something they did quite regularly now considering the position they were all stuck in. And by the word _all_, he instantly thought of the other the resistance back at their camp not too far away from here.

It had begun not long after the destruction of the ship over Portland. The Kyzua leadership here had been quick to connect the attack with the resistance group, or groups as they later found out, that had been harassing their forces in the countryside to the east of the city and almost immediately began to prepare to strike back at them. Fears of uprisings in the city, however, combined with the reorganisation of the armed forces, the gathering of supplies and, to top it all off, the changing weather had slowed any progress by the Kyzua until about three weeks ago and by then the snow was already falling. Plus, there was the task of actually finding the resistance fighters and then getting rid of them. The former had, at least for this area, taken only about a week and a half and for the remainder they had been besieging the area in an attempt to starve the resistance fighters out, even though, ironically, the very same thing was happening to the Kyzua.

As Dr Cockroach walked on, all of this was entirely redolent to him of his service in the Second World War when he had, by some mistake, been attached to the American commander at Bastogne just before the German army attacked through the Ardennes and encircled the area. He had spent the majority of the Battle of the Bulge as it was later called stuck in the village until reinforcements and overconfidence had finally broken the besieging Germans' forces and they retreated. For a moment, he lightly chuckled to himself. It was amazing how history could repeat itself in such little situations like this.

Though, of course, there was always the question, just as there had been back then in 1944, of whether he would live to see through this battle and go on to the end of the war. Well, that was _if the war ended_.

They walked on and on for what seemed like forever, though in reality it was only about ten minutes, maybe fifteen at the most. Soon, they began to see what looked like large spaces in the trees, where more of them had stood until recently when they had been cut down. In some of these spaces there were small holes with small logs put over them and an opening on what looked like the front and sides. Several soldiers were sitting inside them. Nearby, there were a few foxholes and, as they passed one of them, they saw two men, one of them a soldier, the other a man dressed in winter attire, lying there, chatting as if the situation they found themselves in was non-existent. What surprised the dragon was that they paid him no more attention than just a mere glance, maybe a few rods about him and that was it. Then again, he had to remind himself that they had likely captured many of his comrades so, technically, there was really no need for him to be marvelled at.

Soon, they found themselves in a denser part of the forest near a few drops in the ground were, these being visible as the snow had been cleared. A few makeshift tents with many dugouts and foxholes had been set up around the area, forming some little camp. Two small army vehicles were parked nearby and further into the trees the outline of a large vehicle was present; the dragon assuming it was a tank. This was it. This was the little camp that had been made by the resistance, though, unknown to the Kyzua dragon, there were several more scattered about in this part of the forest.

"Hey, Monger, we got another one!" Tom called, his voice going towards one of the nearby tents.

Almost simultaneously, the tent flaps were pulled back and Monger, who had a large thick green coat around him for warmth, exited the tent and approached them.

"Good work," he commented sizing up the dragon before him, who looked back with some amazement in his eyes at seeing a human this old still leading the resistance. "Take him back to the old hut. We'll try and get something out of there,"

"Yes, general," the woman replied, nudging the dragon in the back with the rifle, urging him to move on. With a groan, he did with her following close behind.

"Where did you find this one?" Monger asked Tom and Dr Cockroach.

"He was in the forest, squatting down in a hole and taking a shit," Tom replied and then shouted. "And you're welcome for the toilet paper!" at the dragon, drawing a few looks from several other soldiers and civilians around the camp.

The dragon looked back over his shoulder with a glare on his face and, lowering his hand, stuck his middle finger in the air at Tom before Scarlett poked him sharply in the back with the rifle and barked at him to go back to his original position. Dr Cockroach laughed a little.

"Well, they're definitely learning something in terms of human insults whilst they're here," he muttered nonchalantly.

Monger chuckled a bit in reply. "Yeah. Right, you guys get back to your positions, keep an eye out on the perimeter just in case any of the Kyzua get a little courageous."

"Yes, sir," Dr Cockroach and Tom replied in unison, quickly saluting Monger before leaving, Tom heading off towards a small foxhole a few tens of metres away; Dr Cockroach going in the direction of the hut Monger had referred to but turning right after about twenty feet, disappearing into the trees and snow like a spirit of nature.


	53. The dugout on the edge of the ring

For about ten minutes, Dr Cockroach had been walking through the snow, his feet crunching loudly as he went. The dark grey skies overhead continued to rain the stuff down from the heavens to the ground, leaving him shivering despite having his lab coat on and his arms wrapped around his chest, the hands clasping heavily onto each other as if they had been stuck there with glue.

_Damn this bloody winter! _He thought grudgingly, nearly tripping over a branch hidden by the blanket of snow.

Nearby, a small foxhole about six feet deep and ten feet across was visible; three soldiers lying inside it. One of them was smoking, the other two looking relaxed with empty saucepans on the ground next to the hole, them being used for food. The metal objects were partially losing their colouring and the handles on one of them was broken, this being because they had been found in an abandoned hut in the Government Camp settlement nearby. Still, they were usable for holding food in them.

"Hey, Doc," one of the soldiers greeted him; to which the doctor nodded in reply and raised his hand in reply. "Wanna join our little party?" he asked, nodding to the hole.

"No, thank you," Dr Cockroach replied. "I have to go back to the others nearby,"

"Okay then," the soldier replied, nodding his head in understanding. "We'll see ya soon,"

"Hey, hey!"

As Dr Cockroach walked past the foxhole, another man approached from within the trees to his right, causing him and the three soldiers to look in his direction. The man was dressed in jeans, a heavy, thick t-shirt and had a small pair of black gloves on his hands. His hair was brown and he was tall, just topping 6ft 4 and a look of annoyance was clearly visible on his face.

"C'mon guys!" he was saying as he walked past the doc, giving him a quick nod as he did so, over to the foxhole. "You know we can't have you all in one foxhole!"

"Ah jeez, Jerry. Quick being such a damn sad sack!" one of the smoking soldiers said, waving his hand dismissively at the man. "The Kyzua won't get this far back!" he said.

"It's not that I'm worried about, your all damn medics!" Jerry replied, waving his hand at them to emphasize his point. "I mean, what if a plasma shell or something hits you, we're all dead then with three more medics gone!"

"Don't worry, the doc'll be here to help us out won't ya, doc!" the soldier who had greeted Dr Cockroach said, though they received no reply. "Doc?" he repeated as he and the others looked around to see that he had disappeared back into the frozen undergrowth.

"We must've scared him off," the smoking soldier, who had been dismissive of Jerry's worry, said, shrugging his shoulders and drawing another puff fro, his cigarette as Jerry went back to lecturing them on how dangerous they were all being together.

Nearby, Dr Cockroach breathed a sigh of relief as the sounds of the conversation, which he still heard because of his advanced hearing as he headed further away from the arguing group, gradually faded away into the surrounding frozen wilderness, plunging the world around him into complete silence. He smirked to himself as he walked on, the sound of crunching snow once again reaching his ears. Jerry had been a former engineer from Seattle when the Kyzua invaded, forcing him to flee with his girlfriend into the surrounding countryside. Not long ago, however, a Kyzua attack on a small town where they had been staying had killed her, along with most of those who had been there are the time, and Jerry had sworn to get back at the Kyzua by whatever means he could, both necessary and unnecessary. They [the resistance group] had found him and seven others two weeks ago and since then he had tried to take charge of some parts of the resistance, with little success, in dealing with the Kyzua; his over-worrying and his own want of fighting back often leading him to clash with others. Still, he was respected, for the time being at least.

As Dr Cockroach walked on, he saw the landscape change ahead of him and at once he knew that he was right where he wanted to be, well nearly. He stopped and, making sure he was a good few metres behind the edge of the treeline, looked over the landscape again.

For a good 100 metres or so in front of the edge of the treeline there was an enormous open space filled with fallen trees, snow and rocks; the first being scattered everywhere in this open space. On the other side was the forest again, exactly the same as the one Dr Cockroach was in; big, frozen and covered with snow and fallen trees, and it was occupied as well. The only difference of course was that two sides occupied these two forests; Dr Cockroach and the humans on one side, this one being obvious to the reader, and the Kyzua on the one 100 metres or so away ahead of him.

So why did the Kyzua occupy one half of the forest and the resistance the other, you may ask? Well, due to an error on the part of the Kyzua, when they had found the resistance groups, they had hoped to surrounded them all and then blow them into smithereens, this being carried out by blowing a ring through the forest around the areas where the resistance were in order to highlight where the two sides were. The group Dr Cockroach was part of had been one of these groups to suffer this but of course there arose a new problem, as there always does with every strategy.

The Kyzua, having few ships left because of the disaster of September 30th, had created the ring mainly using their drones and artillery but now because the weather had changed and things had slowed down virtually everywhere, the Kyzua had difficulty in actually carrying out the attempt to blow the resistance to kingdom come. Fog, for example, had made it difficult for their drones to accurately target the areas with which the rebels were hiding in, which, as you would have no doubt guessed, resulted in several disasters of their own soldiers being hit with their own weapons. What was more, the few quick victories the Kyzua had attained in this part of Oregon had put them very nearly neck to neck with their adversaries the humans, resulting again in the likelihood of their own side being hit with their own drones and artillery and so, as a result, the Kyzua High Command in this part of America decided not to risk anymore drone attacks and to limit the artillery strikes; thus putting their faith in the siege tactic of starving the enemy out. This, of course, was to be a disaster itself because with every day the Kyzua had the humans trapped, they did cause them to starve but they themselves were very close behind along the same matter.

Both sides were now locked in a standoff and a race against time, and it would be up to winter and fate to decide who would emerge as the victor and who perished.

Moving on, Dr Cockroach walked to the right, heading towards the treeline where a small dugout was situated. It was about fifteen foot long and ten foot wide with wooden timber acting as the walls and roof. A small entrance was visible in the back and along the front was a rectangular hole that pointed out into the open space where unknowing and dangers were linked hand in hand. It was a dugout he, Link, Susan and Bob and a few others had built not too long ago; minus the steel it kind of resembled an old WW2 bunker. A few voices could be heard emanating from inside and Dr Cockroach smiled upon hearing them. They gave him comfort as they washed over him like a wave, re-awakening a new kind of strength and hope inside him.

Bending low, he stepped into the dugout and was greeted by eight voices of "Hey, doc!", "Hello, doc, and, unsurprisingly, "Hi, I'm Bob," from all around him.

"Hello, everyone," he replied as he sat down near the 'door', the small flammable lamp placed on top of a box in the middle of the 'floor' lighting him up. Even though it was the middle of the afternoon, the heavy clouds and fog made it difficult for any natural light to reach the forest. "Good to see you all again," he said.

Around him were Link, Susan, Bob and five others; three men and two women. The men's names were Alan, Samuel (a former taxi driver from Seattle) and James (a former teacher in one of the towns nearby) and the women's names were Betty (also a former teacher from another town nearby, which was now under the Kyzua's control) and Charlotte (a former college student). They had built this dugout over the course of three days, having to stop for several hours on end at times because of the Kyzua sending over small scouts or firing artillery, and now it had become home for them, hence why all of them, aside from Link and Bob that is, had blankets around them or next to them, the latter being their makeshift beds that also held a few open cans and saucepans for food and water and, to each person, a gun. Being out here in this frozen landscape they had no, or almost, at the very least, non-existent luxuries. Susan and the humans were dressed in winter attire; the boys having large coats suitable for skiing and the girls winter coats, though Betty had a few extra thick tops on as she got cold very easily.

"So anything interesting happen, doc?" Link asked as the cockroach headed scientist sat down, all eyes falling on him.

"Yes, we captured another Kyzua scout who was in…well, quite an embarrassing position," he told them.

"And what kind of embarrassing position is this?" Samuel asked him, a small grin on his face as if already knowing what the doctor was about to say.

"Well, to put it into Tom's words-" Dr Cockroach cleared his throat and, in his best American accent and also in his best voice in trying to imitate Tom, said: _"We found him out in the forest, squatting down in a hole and taking a crap!" _which resulted in a few laughs from the others around him and he joined in. "It was a swear word he said, but I did not feel it was appropriate with women present," he added.

"Well, thank you very much, doctor," Susan replied jokingly in a voice of mock courtesy, inciting a few more laughs again from the others.

"Hahahah! ... What are we laughing about?" Bob asked innocently and receiving a few rolls of the eyes and chuckles from the boys and Susan; Betty mouthing an 'awwww' in admiration of his cuteness and innocence.

"Nothing, Bob," Link told him.

"So, I wonder what Monger'll have planned for us," James said, this being what they were about to get onto when Dr Cockroach walked in.

"Same as usual, making us wait until the Kyzua make the first move most probably," Charlotte said.

"Hey c'mon, Charlotte!" Susan replied defensively. "You have to give him credit, he's trying to get us out of this trap,"

"I know that, Susan," Charlotte said. "But what I want to know is: why we aren't moving? I mean, what if the Kyzua surround us?"

"Char, we're already surrounded." Betty told her.

"I know, Bet, but what I mean is: what if the Kyzua cut us off and bring in tanks and drones and robots and what have you? I mean, what if the fog lifts and exposes us, what do we do then?"

"We'll cross the bridge when we come to it," Samuel intervened, settling the matter. "We just need to have faith and hope in that it lasts and that the Kyzua don't try anything rash."

"Rash?" James snorted. "That's what we damn well expect 'em to do! I wouldn't be surprised if they're doing something like that right now!"

"Alright, cut it out with the negativity you g-"

**BOOM! WHOOSH! BOOM! **That was as far as Link got as the world seemed to shake all around them. Instinctively, everyone in the dugout dived to the floor, covering their heads with their hands or blankets, though Bob oozed down as low as he could go and whispered to Samuel next to him: "Are we playing hide and seek?" to which Samuel replied "No, but we're thinking about it!" sarcastically.  
>Another shell shook the ground and threw a cloud of snow into the dugout via the hole in the front.<p>

Outside, trees fell; snow was thrown about as if it were a blizzard and branches snapped in half like twigs from the sheer shock of the force of the blast of the plasma and energy shells as they crashed all around them. A few shouts echoed out from further back as the energy blasts soared overhead, made invisible by the fog until they landed, creating another ear-shattering boom that seemed to make the whole world rock.

Back inside the dugout, the flammable lamp shook on the table as another shell landed nearby. Susan looked up and saw it teetering on the edge of the box it was on and reached up to grab it but another blast sent it into the air and brought it down with a crash onto the box, smashing the glass and enabling the flame to jump onto the wood, setting it alight.

"Oh no!" Link cried as he tried to put it out with his hands but the fire quickly burned them and he jumped back, howling pain.

"Quick, put it out before the whole dugout goes up!" Betty shouted, the noise of the blasts still continuing outside.

Almost immediately afterwards, as if on cue, Bob lunged himself forward and engulfed the entire box and flame inside his gelatinous body, the fire going out instantly and the box quickly disintegrating away into nothing within him. After a second, however, a look of disgust came across his eye and he spat it out.

"Ewwww!" he groaned, wiping his tongue with his hands. "That was the worst thing I've ever tasted!"

_At least it put the fire out! _Link thought approvingly.

For a few more minutes, the blasts continued to fall around the dugout and beyond, tearing apart the landscape as if it were itself breaking apart. Several times, the dugout roof shook and snow and dust fell from it onto those hiding inside, inciting fear from them that the roof would collapse and bury them alive; hence why Susan had her hands close together so she could pull off the ring and save herself and her friends if need be.

Then, as if the volume outside had been lowered to zero, the falling of blasts stopped, and once again silence invaded the world and settled once more. Gingerly, from within the dugout, Dr Cockroach poked his head out and looked around, taking in the landscape; this being that there were now a few less trees standing and most of those that were had large branches or pieces of the trunk missing from them. Large mounds of snow were scattered about as far as the eye could see as well, indicating that the blasts had landed near them. Dr Cockroach breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that once again they had escaped unscathed.

"It's alright," he told them as he sat back down; the others taking this as the signal to get up from the floor. "We survived again,"

"Thank God!" Betty breathed in a voice of relief, slumping against the wall. "I hope they don't try anything like that for the rest of the day,"

"Knowing the Kyzua, I wouldn't be surprised if this is the first," James replied. "Knowing them, they'll hit us when we're in our beds with another barrage."

"I'd prefer nightmares to that," Link commented, rubbing snow off the top of his fins. "Then again, nothing different between 'em,"

"Let's just try and get some rest," Dr Cockroach said and Susan nodded in agreement.

"Yes, we have to be up very early tomorrow for a patrol so some sleep would do us some good." She added.

The others moaned or muttered, but complied and got into their beds. The blankets they had were mostly thin and some were torn and mouldy but right now they had to make do with what they had. At least they had their winter attire to keep them warm. Link and Bob, not having any feeling of the cold, had given their blankets to the others (Link especially to Betty as a way of impressing her, which his monster friends rolled their eyes at in knowing that he was going back to his old self).

"Right, sweet dreams," Samuel said to the others as he turned over and faced the wall.

"Yeah, good afternoon sleep," Link said, leaning back against the wall and resting his head on the wall and placing his hands on his stomach, his eyes quickly dropping and he began to snore lightly.

As Dr Cockroach laid down, Susan moved over next to him. "Yes, my dear?" he asked when he saw her move up to him.

"Doc…" she said, pausing for a moment as if trying to find the exact words to say to him. "Do you think we should leave this area? I mean here, that is?"

"Susan, we can't," he told her. "You know why, we have to stay here and keep an eye on the perimeter of the ring,"

"Yes, but what if a blast hit the dugout and killed us all?" she told him. "Or if not kill us all, then wound us or trap us? What do we do then?!"

Dr Cockroach sighed and paused for a moment before replying. "Then, we'll just have to hope that we make it through, my dear. That's all we can do. Now, it's best if you go to sleep,"

"Not really the answer I was looking for," she muttered under her breath as she turned over and had her back facing him as if rejecting him, pulling the blanket over her body.

Dr Cockroach sighed and pulled his blanket up to just below his eyes, which looked once more out of the door to the outside world before falling asleep. Meanwhile, the world outside continued to proceed with its daily life in the frozen time it had become enveloped in, waiting patiently for it to end for the spring to come.


	54. Night raid

**SNAP! SNAP! CRUNCH! CRUNCH! **

"Uh…what the…?"

Pitch blackness was all that greeted Susan as she shot up from her makeshift bed within the dugout, her blue eyes scanning the scene around her. Outside, the clouds still hung heavily over the world and the fog seemed to co-operate with them in covering it, ensuring that barely any light got through and what did was of virtually no use to anyone that might try and find their way. To anyone who might aimlessly wander into this situation, they would think that the world was quite literally dead; a world that was devoid of anything it had once been. So much change a simple change of the season that occurred every year could bring.

As Susan stopped and listened, she heard the crunching of snow outside, though it was a little fainter than before. She held her breath and listened; her ears up like those of a deer on the savannah. **CRUNCH! **There it was again! She held her breath and, moving quietly and carefully so as not to hit Dr Cockroach, who had rolled over in his sleep, or Charlotte, who had somehow crawled forward and was now resting on Susan's legs, crept over to the entrance to the dugout and poked her head out into the darkness. The cold breeze instantly slapped her in the face and made the blood rush to her cheeks, but she did not pay it much attention as she scanned the outside world, focusing on finding the source of that noise.

"_Hurry up for Aristokra's sake, you idiot!"_

"_Just be patient will you. I cannot sneak over here like a shadow, Kishan!"_

_(Growl) "I thought I told you to stop calling me that!"_

_"Be silent, the pair of you!"_

Susan's breath was caught in her throat as her eyes stopped dead on a group of figures about twenty feet away, their silhouettes just visible in the darkness of the trees. Though she could not make out an exact height, a quick examination told her enough that they were mostly over six feet tall and were carrying long things in their hands that seemed to have their sides glowing. Out here, that could only mean one thing.

_Oh no! _she thought, her mind going blank with fear.

"_We must get everyone else over here!"_

"_Not so loud, you fool! Do you want the humans to hear us?!"  
><em>

"_Compose yourself, there are no humans nearby. They cannot hear us!"_

"_I said; quiet! Disobey again and I will shoot you myself!" _

Though Susan could not understand their foreign tongue, she felt terrified to say the least nonetheless, which made it safe to say that this language barrier was a positive thing or she would have really been scared. Quietly, she moved back away from the entrance back into the dugout, hoping not to draw any attention from the Kyzua as they muttered and chatted amongst themselves outside.

Unbeknownst to Susan, however, her foot was getting a little too close to someone behind her.

"Ooowww!" Charlotte cried loudly as Susan's foot slammed into her face, immediately waking her and everyone else up and, instinctively, to her at least, causing Susan to wheel round and profusely apologise for what she had just done.

"Alright, what's going on here?!" Link demanded as he suddenly shot up, only to whack his head on the ceiling, making him issue another groan of pain and a loud curse as he rubbed his head with his hand.

"Sssshhh!" Susan hissed at them, silencing the others in the dugout, worry clearly evident in her eyes. "They Kyzua are outside the dug-"

All of a sudden, the world seemed to light up a bright gold colour, almost like that of the sun, and blinded all those inside the dugout despite the wood being an obstacle between it and the people inside; all of whom covered their eyes as the light source seemed to go right through the dugout walls and hit their eyes.

"What the hell is that thing?" Link shouted.

"I don't damn well know!" Dr Cockroach replied, also shouting.

"Let me out of here!" James suddenly exclaimed, pushing his way past the group, literally walking, or running, blind back outside into the cold night just as the light began to fade.

_"SHOKA MUTINAR! REI ILON!" Enemy soldier! Fire on him!_

Upon hearing those words, Dr Cockroach, who had now been able to open his eyes enough to see what was going on around him as the light continued to fade, saw James standing directly outside the dugout, and six Kyzua soldiers twenty five feet away, weapons raised and pointed directly at James, who stood rooted to the spot upon seeing the extra-terrestrials before him, too afraid to move.

"James! Run!" Dr Cockroach almost screamed.

Too late. A barrage of blasts and crescent moon shaped discs flew out towards him, slamming into his chest, head, stomach, arms, and legs and well…anywhere where they could hit him. With a light thud and crunch, his body fell backwards onto the snow, never to rise again. Dr Cockroach, and everyone else who had come over by this time as well, watched as the snow around James' body began to turn a scarlet colour, making them sick to their stomachs.

"Alright, come out with your hands up!" one of the Kyzua, who was bigger and broader than the rest, no doubt singling him out as the leader, shouted loudly as the last of whatever it was that was launched into the air faded away and darkness reclaimed the world once more. "You have one minute!"

Now silence gripped those within the dugout, all of them looking at each other with expressions that all asked: What do we do? What were they to do? They could not hope to hold out in here and fight them off because the Kyzua would no doubt call in reinforcements or order an artillery strike on the dugout and running was obviously out of the question.

"What do we do now?" Link asked.

"We can't leave, they have us trapped, that's for sure," Betty replied, glancing at the doorway just as the Kyzua leader outside shouted "Forty seconds remaining, humans!"

"What is it, are they gonna come and find us? Are we playing hide and seek?!" Bob said enthusiastically with glee and was met with a roll of the eyes from several in the group.

"No, Bob," Susan told him bluntly.

"Susan, you!" Dr Cockroach suddenly stated.

"Thirty seconds!"

"Susan," Dr Cockroach continued. "You can deal with them,"

She knew what he meant but her biting her lower lip with a look of apprehension on her face told him quickly that she was more than doubtful about this idea of his.

"What if something goes wrong?" she asked him apprehensively.

"We have no other way of dealing with them, Susan," he told her. "It's the only way!"

Susan sighed, biting her lip again to show the obvious dislike of this idea, but she knew that the doctor was right. If they stayed here, they were dead, but leaving might only procure the same result but, then again, it was better than sitting in here waiting for the Kyzua to blow them to pieces.

"Everyone!" Susan announced as she grabbed the ring on her finger. "Hang on!"

Meanwhile, outside the dugout the Kyzua squad leader turned to one of the soldiers next to him, only just seeing the silhouette of him through the darkness.

"_Go back to the others and tell them to have a blast zero in on this position of the enemy," _he ordered in his native tongue.

"_Yes, sir," _the young Kyzua soldier replied in unison with a nod, quickly turning and running back out into the ring towards the trees a hundred metres away.

**CRASH! **He had only gotten ten feet when he, along with the other Kyzua squad members, saw the dugout explode as if a bomb had detonated within it, throwing large pieces of wood in all directions like missiles. The Kyzua soldier that had begun to run back to the ring dived behind a fallen tree that had been knocked over from the artillery earlier on and looked up to see huge chunks of wood be thrown in all directions as, to his amazement, a huge figure seemed to rise up out of the ground near where the human dugout was. In the light of the fading device above them, he saw it was a human woman dressed in winter attire and was looking down at them angrily; a large piece of wood in her hands. The Kyzua leader shouted something in alarm and, along with his subordinates, raised his firearm.

"Not fast enough, bloody boys!" Susan shouted to them and threw the piece of wood at them as if it were a kind of wrecking ball.

"_GET OUT OF THE WAY!" _the Kyzua squad commander screamed, pushing the soldier down to the snow as the others quickly scattered.

A loud thud echoed through the air as the wooden beam slammed into the snow where they had been standing, filling the air with a chorus of screams as they were tossed about in the air like ragdolls, disappearing into the darkness, though unlikely to rise again. As Susan lowered her arms, her eyes scanning every part of the visible ground, which was beginning to fade away even more as the flare above her began to fade; she noticed one of the Kyzua soldiers, the one who had been pushed over by his squad leader, groggily get up. Eyes wide, legs shaking and hands clutching the weapon tightly, the Kyzua soldier glanced at the spot where the rest of his squad had been only to see a huge hole there. Gulping, he took one look at Susan and, inhaling deeply, took off as fast as he could back towards the ring.

"_Tuler! Follow me!" _another Kyzua voice shouted from the edge of the ring; Susan and the others by her feet looking to see another Kyzua soldier wave at his comrade from behind a tree.

"Stop 'em!" Link shouted out, quickly snatching Samuel's gun and firing a few bursts of ammo at the Kyzua soldiers, who quickened their pace in their effort to get back to their own lines.

"Link, stop!" Dr Cockroach cried, grabbing his hybrid friend and wheeling him round to face him. "That's a very bad idea!"

"Why!" Link snapped vociferously as he pointed his arm in the direction of the fleeing Kyzua, who, from what Susan could see, were now half-way across the ring and could hear their shouting to their side of the forest. "We're in a war ain't we?!"

"He's right, doc," Susan added, only shocking the doctor even more as his eyes grew wider to the size of printers, glancing back and forth between Link and Susan in disbelief. What! What were they saying!

"Uh, guys?" Charlotte said, nodding towards the ring.

The group looked to see a large shape shift into view in the middle of the ring, but the flare had pretty much faded to nothingness now so they could only make out the silhouette of the thing as it neared them. Susan, from her vantage point fifty feet up, could make out a large shape that moved across the ground slowly and it made no sound at all. As it was coming from the Kyzua side of the ring, there was no doubt it was something bad but what it was exactly she could not put her finger on, though she did remember the shape as being slightly familiar to her with its large rectangular-like base and the big spherical-like shape that rested on the top of the recta-oh no!

Upon realising what it was, she suddenly snatched up her friends in her arms and took off into the woods as fast as she could, her feet crunching loudly in the snow as she ran.

"Susan, what's wrong?!" Link exclaimed in surprise.

**WHOOSH! BOOM! CRASH! **The forest seemed to light up like the sun on a new day behind themas something exploded with an earth-shuddering boom like thunder rumbling directly overhead. The ground leapt as if it were being struck by a point 10 earthquake on the Richter scale; followed by several crashes as a few trees toppled over in the area where they had just been moments earlier. Flames erupted instantly and began to rage across the bare undergrowth. Skidding to a halt, Susan knelt down, hiding behind a thick tree, and set her friends down on the ground in front of her.

"What was that that made that big bang?" Betty asked.

"Look!" Bob exclaimed, pointing ahead towards the ring.

Coming in their direction, largely lit up by the light from the flames, was a predator tank; its main turret turning from left to right and vice-versa as if it were a meerkat on guard. The snow beneath it was flattened as it went but it made no sound at all; probably having been caused by some sort of device the crew inside the tank activated before they set out. It did, however, create a loud snapping sound as it rolled over one of the trees it had knocked over

"We gotta stop it!" Susan said urgently. "If it gets through, who knows what'll happen!"

"Question is how do we do that?" Samuel asked.

"Let's just dig a hole and hide until it passes," Link suggested. "Then we can take it out from behind,"

"That's it!" Dr Cockroach exclaimed. "Link, you're brilliant!" He turned to Susan and explained his idea to her. At first she was surprised and nervous but Dr Cockroach reassured her and she nodded. "Alright, doc," she replied and took off back towards the predator tank.

"Hey, Susan, wait up!" Bob called after her, quickly oozing his way behind her but Link grabbed him and pulled him back.

"No, Bob! Stay here!" he told him sternly.

"But why?!" Bob whined innocently. "Why does she get to go?!"

"She has to do this herself!"

"But it's not fair!"

"Bob!" Dr Cockroach intervened, placing a hand on the gelatinous mass. "Now is not the time!"

"Look, she's reached the tank," Charlotte exclaimed pointing out at the location.

The rest of the group looked to see Susan now right up near the tank, only a few metres behind it to be exact. Instead of attacking it, however, she began to dig a large trench around it, shovelling large scoops of snow out of the ground, leaving a ring ten feet deep and several metres wide; also making sure that the edges of the trench were completely straight so as not to enable any chance of escape by the Kyzua vehicle. What amazed the others, and Susan especially, was that the Kyzua were not firing on her; probably having been so shocked by her actions that they did not know what to do, probably explaining why the turret was not moving at all.

After shovelling a huge trench around the tank, Susan quickly back away towards the trees, keeping a wary eye on the main turret as it began to turn from left to right and vice-versa. The others, who had taken cover in one of the blast holes in the snow, having been caused by the earlier artillery barrage, watched as the tank seemed motionless for a few moments as if unable to comprehend what to do. The crew inside were probably completely speechless. That giant woman could have torn them to pieces! She had the chance to! Why did she do this?!

The sound of moving gears and crunching snow filled the night air as the tank began to move backwards towards the ring. It did not get far, however, when…

THUD! The tank rolled right into the trench and now had its front end sticking up into the air, its tracks still spinning as if it were going along its merry way. The group in the blast hole cheered and laughed at the sight before them and gave Susan many congratulations when she returned to them, shrinking down to her normal size again.

"Thanks, guys," she said to them, a sense of relief in her voice as she looked back at the tank with an expression of happiness. "Looks like they'll be stuck for a while," she added.

"Well that'll teach 'em to sneak up on us at night," Betty commented.

The others nodded. "Should we go over there and finish 'em off?" Link suggested with a tone of eagerness, which he further showed by punching a curled fist into his other hand's open palm.

"No, we need to get out of here now whilst we still can and warn everyone else." Dr Cockroach intervened, looking worryingly at the tank as they saw the hatch on the back of the gun open and a huge bulky figure stepped out, shouting in alarm as he suddenly lost his footing and fell off the tank into the trench. "Quickly!"

Deciding it was best not to argue with the doctor, the group quickly fled into the night, the shouting of the Kyzua soldier who had fallen into the snow for his comrades to get him out ringing in their ears.


	55. Midnight confrontation

**Note: Greetings fellow FF readers. Once again, I must sincerely apologise for the enormous gap between updates. University work has been taking up much of my time and other things as well were more important and took priority. Now, however, university is over and so I have free time on my hands with which to continue and complete this story. **

**And so, without further ado, this FF will be resurrected and continued to the end. Same rules as mentioned in first chapter apply. **

**Two hours later**

Trudging back through the snow in near pitch black darkness was more than a pain for the Kyzua predator tank crew members. The intense cold, disorientation and the shock of what had happened earlier were all crucial factors into why progress had been slow in getting back to their own lines. In fact, even defining _their own lines_ had been hard. Just because they owned one part of the forest on the opposite side of the ring around the human dominated area did not mean that as soon as they entered their part of the woods they were safe. They could easily get lost because, unbeknownst to the humans, there were gaps between their camps and so if they wandered off too far then they could get lost and freeze to death. Even if they did locate their lines, there was a chance that they would be fired on by their own side. Several humans had in the past already been fired on for getting too close (whether they were spying or trying to save themselves was up for debate but the result was the same nonetheless).

The group of four Kyzua, after spending about an hour trying to dig their tank out of the hole that Susan had dug around them, had given up with their mission to try and breach the human defences and so made a move back towards their camp. All of them were still in shock, not only from what happened but from the cold. Then again, when inside a vehicle with a warm interior and then suddenly being forced to abandon it who would not feel affected by the change in temperature?

_"How are we going to explain this to the camp commander when we return?!" _one of the tank operators, who had been driving the vehicle and was short, about 5ft 2 and thin as a rail, asked with a worried tone.

_"We shall just have to say that the humans halted our progress with that overgrown female of theirs!" _the second snapped in reply, he being tall, about 6ft 3 with a lighter touch to his skin and had a slight rasp to his voice which he had caught yesterday; this being a pain in his throat and it was giving him a headache and blurring his vision. With a harsh cough, he placed one hand on his throat. _"Oooohhh! I need something fresh to get rid of this damn thing!"_

"Good luck with that!"

the third Kyzua, who stood at 5ft 7 but suffered from a slight hunch, scoffed sarcastically. _"We have almost no medical provisions left and those twats the Sankiar have taken most of them for themselves!" _

"_Why have we even got them here?!" _the first of the three moaned angrily. _"It's excruciating to know that they are here and have done little whilst we have to sacrifice our necks for them!"_

"I can say exactly the same!"

the fourth of the group, the tank commander, a 6ft tall but heavily built bodied and crayon red coloured dragon, butted into the conversation. _"We have to do something about them! We have to get rid of them!" _

"_Why not just leave them for the humans?" _the second soldier offered before coughing harshly again. With a groan, he held his throat and swallowed hard, his face contorting into a look of pain _"Oh, I need some medicine!" _he grunted heavily.

"_Just go to the humans, they'll sort it out for you!" _the third told him bluntly.

The second dragon rolled his eyes. _"Oh yes, their medicine for Kyzua involves either getting stepped on by that overgrown mammoth they have or being shot in the face! What __**help**__!" _He said loudly and sarcastically, groaning and holding his head in his hand, his pain having flared up from his loud talking.

"_Try not to talk so loudly," _the first dragon said to him._ "You'll do yourself no g-"_

"ALRIGHT, HOLD YOUR POSITION!"

All of a sudden, a circle of figures emerged from the trees around them, weapons that glinted in the moonlight raised directly at them and fingers on the triggering mechanisms. The four froze on the spot for a moment with their arms raised above them in surrender, though they were afraid that it would not do and if they so much as breathed they would be torn apart. Luckily for them, the figures around them lowered their weapons and stepped out of the darkness. Upon seeing them, the tank commander groaned quietly, an annoyed expression coming onto his face when he saw them. Across each of the arms of the seven who had confronted were light green medals. They were exactly who the group did not want to meet. The Sankiar.

"_Well, well, well, look who run into," _one of the Sankiar, a burly looking dragon who was slightly short than the tank commander, was saying as he approached the four, who lowered their arms, which the Sankiar did not like. _"I did not say you could lower your arms, did I!" _he snapped vehemently.

The tank commander glared at him and motioned for his men to ignore his command. The other Sankiar chuckled or smiled nastily at one another, possibly expecting a fight on their hands. Even though they were in a bad way at the moment, any chance for entertainment was not going to be missed, even if it was between their own species.

_"I am not under your command!" _the tank commander growled at the Sankiar. _"These men are under my control!" _

_"But you are under mine! Don't forget who is in charge now!" _the Sankiar reminded him matter-of-factly, to which the tank commander, though with a glare on his face, promptly shut his mouth. _"That's what I thought! Now, what are you doing back here anyway? I thought you had been sent on a mission to breach the human lines!"_

"_We were, but the humans' giant woman dug a hole around our tank and we got stuck in it," _the first of the three behind the tank commander piped up, receiving a glare from the Sankiar dragon upon having been interrupted. _"Well then, maybe you should go back and get it!" _the Sankiar suggested, pointing his rifle at the tank commander.

Upon this, the tank commander growled and advanced on the Sankiar dragon, pushing him up against a tree with such force that it shook upon impact; furious at the deliberate attempt to threaten him. The other Sankiar watched with shock and amazement, as did the regular Kyzua. It did reveal one thing though; for all their bark, the Sankiar did not have much bite.

_"You dare threaten me again and I will kill you myself!" _the tank commander snarled at the Sankiar dragon, whose face held a look of utmost fear upon it, nothing but fearful stutter coming out from his mouth. _"If you want it back, go get it!" _he growled once more before throwing him to the ground and barking something at his men to follow, which they did.

As they left, the Sankiar who had been thrown to the ground glared furiously at the tank commander, raising his fist and muttering something under his breath, no doubt an invective. The other Sankiar came over; one helped him up whilst another gave him back his gun that he had dropped when he was forced up against the tree. All of them felt angry at what had just taken place. How dare someone of a regular rank do that to them, the Sankiar! How dare he! They were his superiors! He should be immediately carted off and shot for his actions!

Meanwhile, as the group of regular Kyzua trudged on through the snow, the three regular soldiers began to mutter amongst themselves over what had just taken place. They were happy that their commander had done something like that but shocked at the same time. They, or at least _he_, could be taken away and punished severely for it. There were going to be an eventful few hours ahead of them now. What would happen, they had only a faint idea and it was not a good one either.

As they walked on, the second Kyzua regular soldier stopped and sneezed loudly into his hand. He sniffed and went to wipe his hand in the snow when, upon seeing his hand, he froze in place and his eyes grew wide and a look of fear etched across his face. Looking down, he saw the snow and became even more frightened at what he saw in the moonlight coming through the trees above.

_"Hey!" _one of his comrades called back to him. _"Come on, it's freezing!"_

For a moment, the Kyzua soldier held his position, unsure of what to do or what to say as if he was afraid that anything he did next would kill him. Could he tell them? Could he reveal something horrible like this to them?

Deciding it was best not to, he wiped his hand in the snow, trying to cover up the part near his feet and make his hand clean, and walked on after his comrades.

Behind him on the snow, though it was difficult to see in the faint glow of the moon, was something that would scare many people if they saw it, especially if it came out from them as easily as a sneeze.

It was blood.


	56. A surprise for the New Year

**Thirteen days later**

**January 1****st****, 2012**

And so here we are dear readers on New Year's Day, a day with which people would have celebrated as the beginning of another year with which they would be able to make ends meet, have fun and avoid any sadness or anger. Its coming was usually marked with fireworks, cheering crowds, parties, happiness and times of joy and ecstasy.

Not this year. In the first New Year since the start of the invasion, there were to be no celebrations in the cities as the Kyzua had banned celebrations, public gatherings or festivals of any kind and the use of things such as fireworks, bonfires or firecrackers for fear it would all be used as a sort of signal for any rebel Humans in the surrounding areas. Even within the guerrilla camps themselves few had the mood or want to take part or even begin them. They were too busy either fending off hunger, cold and illness or were keeping watch in fear that the Kyzua would find and attack them. This stalemate was like World War One all over again, just more widespread than a single long battlefield line of torn up earth and decomposing bodies. Of course, the question of how long all this would go on still lingered but there was one thing that was certain: It was not going to end any time soon.

Within the encampment, things were like everywhere else, not going good. Even though it was a New Year and they had managed to cling on for the last month or so, the guerrillas had begun to suffer what the Kyzua had wanted them to, though ironically they too were suffering the same thing. Starvation and a growing shortage of rations. Any food that would have been left in the supermarkets by now would have been gone and there was nothing in the forest to eat because of the time of the year. Plus, most animals were in hibernation and those that were not had been killed by the fighting or had fled to get away from it. The land had almost completely been stripped of food. If it had not been for the doctor's technology of creating a water extractor machine, made so as to extract moisture from the snow, then they would have been nothing more than a few struggling individuals' weeks ago. However, eve the doctor was limited. His contraption was made with the few pieces of scrap metal and plastic they had left and that were not in use. Plus, the machine was very loud when it worked, the danger here being obvious, and the freezing weather caused it to be slow and sometimes stop working altogether. Its use was limited very much and it had to be kept that way because if they lost it then that was it.

Ammunition too was running low. With now no more weapons left to find among the countryside or any houses or shops that had previously sold them, things had been difficult from the start. The fact that the Kyzua were no longer risking any more large scale attacks or night raids like they had done not too long ago did not help either. Now with the fighting still going on, or what little of it there was still to continue, and showing no sign of relenting the guerrillas had been forced to strictly ration what they had left. Most of the ammunition for the bullets in their weaponry had been used and the Kyzua ammunition had been decreasing, slowly but surely, as had their weapons.

Of course, I would be a fool to not include how the Kyzua were faring in this perpetual standoff. Like their Human enemies, they too had been suffering heavily as a result of starvation and a lack of will to fight. Now, unbeknownst to the Humans largely, a new enemy was tearing through them like a knife through warm butter. The Kyzua regulars had been pushed to the point of deserting, but, for once, they lived in fear rather than hatred of their Sankiar leaders. The latter would police the former and any who were caught deserting, even, though this was much rarer, among the Sankiar themselves, were immediately executed. What was more, they had been turning more and more forceful in their pushing of the regulars to fight the Humans, often sending them on meaningless, suicidal tasks that would result in them being killed and/or maimed with little, if any gain to their own side. Everything on the side of the Kyzua was going downhill and it showed no sign of stopping.

For the guerrillas the situation was looking increasingly dire and much the same could be said for their Kyzua adversaries. One way or not, the standstill here was beginning to come to some sort of climax, but who exactly would be the one that cracked and gave up … well, that was something fate would have to decide.

Just a few metres behind where the treeline ended the roof of a small wooden dugout was visible under the layer of snow that still covered the ground. As was usual with dugouts here, there was a long window on the front of the makeshift structure and a small entrance at the back. Inside the dugout, a group of the guerrillas sat; three men and one woman. One of the men, a former soldier, was sat keeping watch out over the winter world in front of them, his brown eyes never leaving the treeline a few hundred yards opposite their own, despite the fact rings circled both of them from lack of sleep. The other two were sitting on the floor, one with his back to the wall the window was on reading a book, the other also sitting with his back to the wooden wall next to the entrance but with his knees brought up to his chest and his head turned sideways and resting on them. His face showed that he was in a deep sleep with his easy, rhythmic breathing and closed eyes that were probably seeing much better things in the dream world he was currently in.

With the men were Link and Dr Cockroach, both sitting in the middle of the dugout with the latter working on a small portable radio, or what was left of it, he had found in a nearby house. He had managed to get it working again and had managed to upgrade it so he could listen to any radio chatter between the Kyzua. Whilst Dr Cockroach was working on the right frequency, Link was listening with his ear close to the machine, waiting to see if he heard anything but for the last ten minutes, as would happen most other days, all he had heard was static. The Kyzua had probably gotten wind of what they were doing and had put a shield or something up to block them from listening in on their radio messages between each other. Only thing it did, though, to the Humans was to make their time more monotonous.

On the left side of the dugout lying on the floor on a small blanket was Susan in a deep sleep. She, like all of them aside from Link, was dressed in her winter attire and on her middle finger was the ring that enabled her to decrease in size. Unlike the man near the dugout entrance, she was asleep because she was trying to fight off a bad flu. Like a lot of people, she had fallen prey to the many illnesses and diseases that were prevalent this time of year, only now there was no doctor to go to in order for the illness to be cured overnight. Her body was going to have to fight it off on its own, as it had to for the past three days. The rest of her team had been worried sick over her but still they could do little; plus the fact that Susan was still continuing to do tasks for the guerrillas and it had taken a lot of arguing today to get her to rest and allow her body to recuperate.

"Anything, Link?" Dr Cockroach asked again for the ninth time in the past twenty minutes.

Link shook his head. "Nah, nothin', Doc," he replied, raising his head and looking outside through the window at the white landscape ahead of them. "You see anything, Ricky?"

The soldier [Ricky] shook his head, not turning to face the hybrid behind him. "Nothing yet. I think they're gonna let us have an easy day,"

"I'll believe that when I see it," Dr Cockroach commented nonchalantly as he tried again to set the radio at another frequency but, as Link listened in again, they still received nothing. "Useless machine!" he muttered in an annoyed tone under his breath.

"Are you still having no luck?" the man, who was short but broad shouldered and had black hair and green eyes and was dressed in a thick black coat with a thick jumper underneath and a pair of jeans with thick snow boots on his feet, who was sitting next to the window reading his book asked, looking up at them. His name was Jonathan.

"No, nothing at all," Link replied and let out a sigh. "Doc, let's give it a break," he told the insect headed scientist. "It's no use, we just ain't gonna pick anything up today,"

Dr Cockroach exhaled deeply and nodded. As much as he hated to admit it, the radio was not going to receive anything today. Then again, for the past week it had barely received anything from the Kyzua side so what was going to make today any different? After another moment's pause as if he was debating whether to continue on without Link or listen to his friend's advice, he gave up and turned it off.

A stir from behind drew their attention to Susan as she sat up, or struggled to do so, and yawned, rubbing her eyes and tightening her coat to try and keep in the warmth.

"Hey everyone," she said, shaking her head a little as if to shake off any ounces of sleep left in her eyes.

"You have a good sleep, my dear," Dr Cockroach asked her and she nodded. "Yeah, it was fine, thanks." She replied as she tried to sit up a little more but did not have the strength so she leaned against the wall behind her. "You have any luck?" she asked, nodding towards the radio.

"Nothing," Link told her. "Looks like we'll be silent for another day," he added as he shifted and moved back against the wall behind him, resting his back against it.

Susan groaned as she placed a hand on her head, the headache she had earlier suddenly striking back with a renowned ferocity that made her feel like her head was going to explode. What made matters worse, as she placed her other arm across her stomach she reminded herself of how thin she was, to the point where she could feel the outlines of her hip bones and lower ribs as if there was no skin to cover them. Grimacing in dislike and groaning again a little in pain from the headache, she gazed around the dugout at the other expressions of nonchalance or even sadness etched onto the faces of her friends. Looking at their bodies too, she could hardly complain about her diet when they were as thin, if not _thinner than her_.

Starvation had hit them all hard; even Link's 'beer gut' had shrunk to a near half skeletal resemblance of the stomach area. The lack of food in this area combined with the ever shortening rations they had left had caused a host of problems. If illness and pain was not one of them, passing out from exhaustion or just simple hunger was, believe it or not, it was like this part of the world was a third world country filled with starving people who would struggle daily just to put food on the table. It was not even uncommon to see people die of it, or if not die at least walk around looking like skeletons, half dead ad left to wander with no real purpose other than just to wait and die.

Sad thoughts immediately flooded into Susan's mind. Starvation was how they had lost several of their friends over the past two weeks. The most shocking had been Charlotte, the former college student. She had been thin to begin with but over the last two weeks she had insisted on taking care of others than herself despite the protestations from her friends. It was a move that she would come to regret because only a week ago she had been hit by a crescent disc from a Kyzua regular spying on their positions. The wound in her leg had gotten infected and she had difficulty walking; the worst thing having been that her injury had come when the rationing was really put into action. She had barely any food to eat afterwards and even though she could walk, or more or less limp, a few days after she was wounded, her condition did not get any better. She literally looked like a walking skeleton and her skin had turned almost as white as the snow.

Finally, only yesterday evening, she had been limping back towards the dugout from the main camp a few hundred metres behind the line with Link and Ricky, and, without any warning, she just … just literally dropped dead in the snow. It was a shock to the others because of how it had just suddenly happened but, in a way, they were not really that moved by it. They had been speculating she would go at some point; it was just a little surprising that it happened yesterday in the manner it did. The reactions from the others were barely sad, but not out of arrogance or uncaring but because they had seen it so much now there was just nothing new about it. They just buried her where she fell and carried on with their duty.

As sad as it is to accept, dear readers, that had become the mentality of many of them here, including the monster team. That was what it was like for them and everyone now almost as if they had lost all emotion and were left to stay on the Earth as soulless, non-feeling creatures, unable to care about another's well-being any longer.

Suddenly, Ricky, who was breathing warm air into his hands for a moment, looked up out of the window and froze; his eyes resting on a shape that he could see moving of the other side of the ring.

"What the hell is that?" he said, drawing the looks of everyone else, even waking up the other man who was asleep across the dugout.

"What is it, what do you see?" Dr Cockroach asked, sitting next to Ricky and staring out into the wilderness in front of them.

Ricky replied by pointing across the ring towards the trees on the other side. With his enhanced vision, Dr Cockroach looked and saw a shape moving just between the trees on the other side of the ring. It was an oval truck of the Kyzua and it had just come to a halt. However, what really drew his attention to it were the two large block-like objects that were on top of the truck, though they were too far away for him to make out completely. A figure moved next to the truck and he could see it was a Kyzua soldier. All of this made no sense to the doctor as he scrutinized them, watching the figure move to the front and, seemingly, engage, in conversation with the driver of the truck.

_What are they doing?_ He asked himself but was cut off from further thought when...

_**"Attention!" KZK … "Attention! All guerrillas … listen up!"**_

That pretty much roused everyone in the dugout, even waking up the third man sleeping near the entrance from his sleep. The entire group pulled themselves up to the window and peered out across the ring, though they could not see the truck as well as Dr Cockroach.

"What the hell is that?" Jonathan asked, surprised.

"I think ... those … yes, they're speakers!" Dr Cockroach exclaimed.

"Speakers?" Link replied.

"Yes. They must have hotwired them and then put them onto the back of the truck."

"_**All Humans … You are to lay down your arms immediately. The Kyzua don't wish to continue this struggle any longer! They have promised you food, water and medicine. Just give up and no one will be harmed!"**_

A pause came from the voice that rolled out across the ring in its ubiquitous fashion. Those in the dugout looked at each other, having been surprised to hear the words _"The Kyzua," _in this broadcast to their lines. If it said those words then … were the Kyzua using humans to broadcast the message?

Susan pulled herself up to the window and turned her head slightly, listening to the message as it began again, though whoever was speaking paused to cough for a moment before continuing. She had heard that voice before somewhere, she knew she had. It was vaguely familiar but she just could not trace exactly to where she had heard it before.

_**"This is not a Kyzua spokesman speaking; this is former news anchor-man Derek Dietl here," **_the voice said, pausing again to cough, and any who were listening could make out a faint sound that sounded like spitting come from the background. _**"You know me and I you."**_

Upon hearing those words, Susan exchanged a wide-eyed, shocked expression with the others in the dugout.


	57. Searching for him

**Authors Note: Greetings dear readers. Once again, I must sincerely apologise for the enormous delay in updating this FF. University is taking up much of my time again so updates on all of my FF's will be relatively slow throughout the next year. However, this Christmas break I promise to try and do as many as I can when not busy.**

Thank you and once again I apologise.

**The next day**

**January 2nd**

"Susan, are you sure this is a good idea?"

"No, but it's too late to turn back now,"

Going out across the ring was not an easy thing to do under any circumstances, even with the snow falling and the thin layer of fog in the air and the cold usually driving most into their dugouts to keep warm. For Susan, however, it was something that she had wanted to do (to her it was even at the point she felt she _needed_ to). To Link, Dr Cockroach and Bob, or at least the two former, it was a dangerous and suicidal move by her and had tried, but failed in talking her out of it. But since they were a team and had already experienced being split up before they did not want to risk losing her and so went along out into the ring. Out into the unknown.

The snow crunched loudly under their feet as they went, keeping low to the ground so as not to draw any attention. Even though the current situation of the two sides meant that any patrolling Kyzua was highly unlikely they could never be too sure. It was better to be safe than sorry. The cold nipped at every exposed part of their bodies and their clothes, save obviously for Link and Bob, were slowly but gradually covered with snow. The two aforementioned were able to go on without so much as shivering but Susan and Dr Cockroach shivered and felt their teeth chattering madly in their mouths. This minus twelve to fifteen degrees weather was certainly not helping their bodies out but they had learned to ignore that for now. Now they had more important things to focus on, and it was just the last twenty meters or so until the next part of the forest. The Kyzua controlled area.

"I hope they won't see us," Dr Cockroach said as they stopped behind a fallen tree trunk that was completely white from the snow falling from above.

"They won't, don't worry, doc," Susan reassured him as she quickly poked her head up from behind it and scanned the treeline. Nothing yet. So far so good. "If they had seen us by the way, they would have fired on us." She added to prove her point.

"Yeah, but who's to say they ain't gonna be waiting for us until we get over there?" Link asked as he crouched down beside her.

Susan went to reply but a sudden burst of coldness ran up the back of her hair and made her gasp loudly as it seemed to paralyse her. Link and Dr Cockroach froze for a second but relaxed when they saw snow falling off her white hair and onto her coat. A giggle made all three look behind them to see Bob a few feet behind them, a snow ball in his hand and a smile on his face.

"Hey guys, wanna have a snowball fight?" He asked eagerly as if he were a child outside on Christmas morning.

The others were less amused by his playful antics. "Bob, knock it off!" Link hissed at him. "Get over here!"

Unfazed by the tone of his friend, Bob oozed over to them. "What are we already playing in a snowball war?" he asked excitedly.

Susan rolled her eyes. "No, Bob. We're sneaking up on the Kyzua to try and find Derek. Remember?" she reminded him.

Bob slapped his 'head' just above his eye. "Right, of course!" he exclaimed. "Okay, don't worry guys, I'll stay quiet like a ninja," he said, his voice dropping to a near whisper at the end of the sentence as he oozed over beside Dr Cockroach, earning a shake of the head from Susan.

"I can't hear anything," Dr Cockroach said, his advanced hearing picking up nothing, nor his eyesight resting on any moving body amongst the trees. "And I can't see anything either. We're clear. Let's go."

Slowly, the group rose up from behind the tree trunk and, with one final check by the doc to make sure nothing was hiding or that they were not being watched, ran on towards the trees.

Yes, dear readers, your eyes read correctly the words 'find Derek'. It was less than twenty four hours after they had heard him broadcasting from the Kyzua truck parked on their side of the ring, his voice bellowing out to the guerrillas to give up and that any hope of continuing the fight was hopeless. He had stopped at around about ten last night and was heard again this morning at about six and had carried on until about nine thirty, just a little under forty minutes. Susan had, since last night, been hatching a plan to go and get him and broke it to the others this morning. They had, as you would have guessed, opposed her at first. Not only did they see it as suicidal, but going after someone who had broken her heart was not really what they wanted to do. Nevertheless, she insisted and so, without consulting Monger or anyone else, they had gone out into the ring.

As they passed another fallen tree trunk next to a large crater, Link stopped and looked at the ground, prompting the others to do the same. Before them was the corpse of a Kyzua Sankiar dragon lying on its side with the front facing towards them, which they could tell by the light green medal on his arm. Much of it was covered with snow but a faint scarlet-like colour was visible around it and on the chest a wound was just above visible beneath the snow. Seeing it brought back the images of last night when the group, along with Ricky and Jonathan, had been in the dugout and were resting their heads after hearing Derek's monologues end. Suddenly, a few blasts had struck the dugout and they returned fire in a gunfight that lasted only about twenty seconds before it stopped. They were all okay but they could hear the Kyzua screaming out in the ring and several other voices shouting loudly. Link had commented afterwards that the pitch blackness had saved them [the Kyzua] or they would have been slaughtered.

Looking upon it now, they could deduce that a small group had tried to infiltrate their lines and take an opportunity in wiping a few of the guerrillas out but it had, of course, backfired and resulted in one of them getting shot. Whether he had gotten lost and died of his wounds before he reached his lines or the others with him had left him was uncertain. Still, to them it was one less alien to deal with. On they moved, though Dr Cockroach paused and looked back at it with a grim expression, thoughts and images of his past momentarily running through his mind before he rushed after his friends.

Finally, after a few more minutes of ducking and diving from tree trunks to craters, they reached the treeline of the Kyzua. So they were not exposed out in the open. That was one part of their plan done, but now they had another and that was the hardest. They had to find out where Derek was. His truck he was speaking from had last been seen along this part of the treeline earlier. It had not been too long ago so it could not have gone far, right? After all if he was going to broadcasting to them, then he would still be nearby somewhere.

"See anything, doc?" Link asked him.

Dr Cockroach shook his head. "Nothing at all," he answered with a sigh. "They must've left the area." He suggested, his voice having a tone of hope within it I that they would not have to go on and could go back.

Susan was undeterred. "No, we have to find them." She pressed. "Split up, each go in different directions and try and find him."

"What if we don't find him?" Link asked.

A pause hung between them for a moment before Susan spoke up again. "After ten minutes, we'll meet up back at the body of the Kyzua," she answered. "Good luck guys." She concluded and, before they could stop her, she headed off into the trees.

Behind her, the boys exchanged nervous glances and watched her disappear into the undergrowth, directly into the unknown.

"Let's hope this doesn't go bad," Link commented anxiously.

"I can sympathise with you entirely on that one, Link." Dr Cockroach replied as he and the others split up, going in different directions, uncertain of this was going to be their last time together.

**Several minutes later, deep within the Kyzua controlled forest**

FWOOP! Another pile of snow fell to the ground as Susan moved a branch out of the way, her feet crunching loudly under the snow as she went. Even though there was no one around, she knew that she was in the lion's den now; that scattered throughout this forest the Kyzua were camped, waiting to pounce on any guerrillas or survivors that came their way. Ifthey saw her, she would have to run for it and thus make her plan to find Derek fruitless. As she climbed over another fallen tree, she wondered about the others. Were they having any luck? Were they okay? Well, they must be considering she had not heard any commotion since they split up.

But did noise always mean something bad was happening?

_"Tuler! Yakto nov'na!" Get over here now!_

_"Oish! Rio Kishan!" Wait, stupid Kishan!_

The shouting made her stop dead in her tracks, her senses kicking into maximum as she scanned the scene with her eyes and ears, determined to trace where the noise had come from. For a moment, the air was quiet, not a sound to be heard. Susan wondered if it was just her mind playing tricks on her, but she was soon corrected when another shout echoed through the woods, coming from directly ahead of her.

Inhaling deeply a huge amount of oxygen, and some courage too, she continued on, keeping low just as she had done when she was out in the ring shortly before. It was now that fear and apprehension began to build up within her like water filling up a tank. Now she was heading directly into the part of the lion's den where the predators were waiting. Regardless of whether they were aware of her or not, she knew that at any point within the next few minutes a fight could occur. Even though she had been fighting the Kyzua for a good seven months now, she was still nervous that any contact with them could be her last moment alive, even in her giant form. The memories of nearly being blasted to smithereens by the predator tank shortly before September 30th were still engraved into her mind. It could happen again. Now, tonight, tomorrow or next week, it could happen again.

Over tree trunks, ducking behind still standing trees, in and out of small holes and even over a tiny frozen stream, she pressed on. Several times a few voices rang out from either side of her but they were obviously Kyzua, which did make her nervous as she thought they were watching her. No blasts or rays came flying out at her so she still safe, for the moment at least. Stopping next to a large tree big enough for her to hide behind, she scanned the scene around her. Her blue eyes caught nothing, absolutely nothi-wait!

A flicker of light was just visible about thirty yards away beyond some trees to her left. She paused and observed it, wondering if it was her imagination. A few voices, this time talking at a normal decibel she had heard from the Kyzua before, began. Her body tensed a little. She was a little relieved that she had found what she was looking for, but the anxiety at what was to come next and would could happen hit her hard. As stated before, this could well and truly kill her.

_Well there's no point standing here, woman! Are you going or what? _She told herself mentally and, gathering up some more courage, crept over to the light.

Sure enough, when she was close enough, she saw it was a series of bonfires, about four in all scattered about a small clearing about fifteen feet from each other. Between and around the bonfires were several Raider buggies, a few oval trucks and several large metallic crates and a few makeshift coverings made out of twigs, branches and leaves. Several small paths had been made through the snow, all of them leading off into the trees in different directions. And, of course, scattered about the clearing were many Kyzua, about forty or fifty of them. Some were sitting near the bonfires trying to keep warm; others were walking about talking or patrolling.

Susan scanned every inch of the clearing, taking in every moving figure and what they were doing. She was near a parked oval truck and the nearest Kyzua was about ten feet away with his back to her, chewing some kind of stick, shivering in the cold air. Every now and then he would cough harshly and sniff, following it each time with a groan of pain and a placing of his hand on his stomach area. She had made it here, but with every area she looked she saw nothing that resembled a human.

_Damn! _She cursed herself.

Maybe they took him away somewhere and another scan of the area with her eyes just made her think this further. She must have missed him; either that or she was at the wrong camp. After all, there must be more of them around here. If he was not here, he was somewhere else. She cursed herself again, angry at her having wasted time in trying to find him. Though, at least she would not have to come back here again.

_It's time to go find the others _she told herself.

Suddenly, a hand slammed itself over her mouth, digging into her face and pulled her behind the truck. Susan cried out, but it was muffled by the hand. Instinctively, she went to pull the ring off her finger when she made contact with the being in front of her and her eyes widened in surprise and shock, mostly the latter. The being lowered its hand and Susan lost the ability to speak for a moment as her mind tried to process what had happened. When she did, one word came out.

"Derek?"


	58. Attempt at rescue

Derek smiled a small smile and nodded lightly. "Hey Susan," he greeted her. "How ya doing?" he asked her with an attempt at happiness but in vain.

"Fine," she replied, taking in his form with an expression that clearly showed she was both shocked and surprised at how he had … well, to put to it one way, degenerated.

He was wearing a black, zip up jacket with two pockets on the front and it was reasonably thick but even then she could tell with how he hunched his shoulders and rose his eyebrows every few seconds or so that it was not doing well in keeping out the cold. Even if it was, Derek's physique was not going to be very helpful either. His face was rather hollow and his eyes looked a little sunken with dark rings around them. The legs were bending at the knees and were shaking slightly, only showing how hard it was for him to stand. The sleeves of the coat were torn a little and, looking at the hands, she could see many scars and bruises and the odd cut as if he had been picking through a thorny bush and struck his hand on a thick branch whilst doing so. His hair was also faded from its natural brown to a grey colour, a sort of half-way between the snow white hair on Susan's head and dark silver. When he spoke too, his voice sounded hoarse and strangled as if he had a sore throat, which Susan speculated he did seeing that he was out here. Virtually everyone else back on her side of the forest had similar illnesses. Even though his coat covered his torso, she could speculate that he was very thin and nearly skeletal in appearance (his trouser legs were evidence enough of that).

Derek coughed harshly and wiped his mouth clear of some spit. "Sorry," he hoarsely told her and, hacking up disgustedly, which Susan grimaced at, spat onto the snow. "I've been ill for the last ten days."

"It doesn't surprise me," Susan replied lowly. "We all have, at least on our side we have." she added.

A pause fell between the two, the silence filling the air, though talking from the Kyzua on the other side of the truck in the clearing still reached their ears. For a moment, they remained still and quiet and exchanged nervous glances at one another, fearing that at any moment a Kyzua soldier would walk around the truck and see them together. When it was all clear, they spoke again, though Derek stepped further towards the truck so as to make sure he was out of sight of any Kyzua that happened to look his way.

"So … what's your story?" Susan asked him in a quiet voice, both out of ensuring no unwanted attention came to them as well as finding it hard to initiate a conversation considering their situation.

Derek heaved a heavy sigh and, cleared his throat. "Well," he began, pausing for a moment so as to find the correct words and way to tell her this story. "After San Francisco fell in the first couple of days, I stayed in Modesto, thinking that it would be safe." He paused and shook his head as if to emphasize the coming twist. "It wasn't. They took it on the third or fourth, maybe fifth day of the invasion and rounded me and several tens of others up and took us to San Francisco. We were there for a long time but … treated quite well believe it or not." He paused and let that sink in, the last sentence making Susan's eyes go wide with surprise.

"But, all of that changed at the end of September," he continued and his tone grew a little melancholy. "After that, everything went downhill. The people in the city were treated real badly. We had executions every few days or so and they cut off food and water for about a week. I couldn't even find a loaf of bread or anything like that!" his tone sounded like it was complaining here, which Susan rolled her eyes at his care and concern for himself. "Anyway, about three weeks ago they found out somehow, I don't know how, that I happened to be a radio and newsman and brought me up here." He concluded. "Hence why I'm here now and looking terrible." He added nodding down at himself.

Susan exhaled heavily, certainly surprised and even a little overwhelmed with what her former fiancée had told her. Then again, with the way this war had been going for the past six months it was not very surprising. She still remembered all the reports they had received in the early days of it all of how resistance and cities falling like ninepins to the Kyzua had reached them. She did not really react a great deal with regard to Derek's part of the story; his narcissism was no surprise to her after the way he had broken her heart and then _tried _to win it back. The thoughts of her flicking him up into the air and having Bob swallow and spit him out did bring her some happiness but she kept it to herself.

"Wait!" She suddenly spoke up after a moment or two of realisation at something Derek had just said. "Derek, did you say you were in San Francisco?" she asked him.

He nodded in reply, a curious look etching across his face. "Yeah, why?"

Susan paused and a look of worry came onto her face as she looked away at the truck for a moment. "My parents!" she muttered apprehensively.

"Susan, are you okay?" Derek asked her, stepping towards her.

"My parents!" she repeated, this time a little louder and immediately spun round to face him. "Did you see my parents whilst you were in San Francisco?" she asked him, her voice begging for a positive answer.

Derek did not answer her directly, her question having taken him by surprise and throwing him off. After a moment though, he regained his composure and shook his head, much to Susan's dismay.

"I never saw them," he told her. "I knew they were there because I ran into Jacob, you remember the guy who lived down the street with his family? Yeah, we spoke a bit and he told me about meeting your parents but I couldn't see them because I was being housed somewhere near the city centre. Couldn't get over to them. The end of September ended any chance of that happening, and so has this."

Susan's face fell and her heart sank into hopelessness once again. The light that shined on it so briefly, as if for the first time in her life, was so great and now it had been snatched away from her. She sighed sadly, wondering if they were okay. For all she knew … they could be … be …

No! _Susan don't think like that you idiot!_ They were okay! They were still alive! They were tough and could live through anything! She herself was proof of that!

A loud coughing, retching sound from nearby snapped the two away from their conversation. Derek, almost by instinct, placed himself against the truck and poked his head out to observe a Kyzua bending over with his hands supporting himself up on his knees, his chest heaving in and out and his breathing being ragged. Even though the two were about twenty feet away, he could see that the Kyzua had an expression of pain on his face and that he was beginning to struggle to stay up. Another Kyzua rushed over to see if he was okay and, placing an arm around him, helped his acquaintance stagger away towards one of the fires, both of them talking in their native language.

"What is it?" Susan asked him.

"They're sick," Derek told her, moving away from the end of the truck and turning back to face her. "Like me, almost all of them-" he gestured towards the truck, but Susan knew he meant the Kyzua. "-are all sick. They've been this way for weeks now. And it's killing them."

"What, you mean … a simple c-cold? Or flu?"

Derek nodded. "Yep. Susan, it's … it's like … _War of the Worlds _or something. Illness is cutting through them. When I got here, we had like three hundred and fifty of the Kyzua. Sure some were taken back due to wounds and transfers but … but the illness had reduced it to just … well, all those you see now in the clearing."

Susan went wide-eyed and, resting against the truck, slid down to the ground, feeling the cold rush up into her through her clothing. If what Derek was telling her was true, then … then the Kyzua really were on the brink of collapse! After all, there was no way they could maintain any kind of defence against the resistance if they attacked. Still, the very fact they were dying because of simple flus, it was still surprising. Then again, if you thought about it, they had never expected this to happen; not just the illness but the war in general. They had never expected to find themselves waging a ground war against the humans and struggling in near WW1-like conditions for control. All of it had completely gone up in their faces and now nature seemed to be turning against them.

Maybe even the war itself could be turning in humanity's favour. Maybe there was a coming chance that all this could and maybe even would turn around and go in humanity's favour.

"Susan," Derek's voice reached her ears, snapping her out of her thoughts and making her look back up at him to see him looking down at her with a concerned expression "Are you okay?"

She shook her head a little, blinking a few times as if to eradicate any sign of being away with the fairies. "Yeah, fine. Sorry," she replied, getting to her feet. Another pause between them reigned until Derek broke the silence once again.

"What are you doing here anyway?" he asked her but then quickly began speculating before she could reply. "Are you spying? Or are you trying to escape? If you are, can I come with you?" his tone changed to one of pleading on the last sentence, emphasised by his half shutting of the eyes and slightly higher voice like he was trying to imitate a child.

For a moment, her mind was blank as if unable to believe in his sort of … selfishness and lack of care for anything or anyone other than himself. Then again, as she mentally reminded herself, he had been this way when they were engaged so it should not be very surprising to her.

Still, she had to admit, he did have a point. She _had _come to find and … well rescue him. It may sound hard to believe considering what they had been through in the past but right now with the current circumstances things had changed, _a lot_! It was not safe for him to be here because eventually the Kyzua would get rid of him. Well ... that was speculation but with the way the war was going it was certainly a strong possibility.

Pondering for a moment longer, Susan finally got up off the ground. "C'mon, Derek," she said, nodding towards the direction she had come. "We have to go now!"

"Okay let's go!" he said rather hurriedly, already heading off as to where Susan had indicated towards, making her roll her eyes.

_How typical _she thought to herself in mild disgust.

_"SHOKA MUTINAR!"_

The roar made her leap out of her skin and, wheeling round, she saw a Kyzua Sankiar standing only about fifteen feet to her left. He had heard the sound of talking and, upon coming to investigate, watched the human who as known as Derek bolt into the woods. It took a moment for his mind to process what he had seen and had gone to shout out to him but had seen something out of the corner of his eye and saw it was Susan. And now, of course, he had just alerted everyone around them of her presence.

So there was only thing she could do.

Like a deer bolting away from danger, Susan sped into the woods as fast as her legs would go. No sooner had she started weaving in and out between the trees and jumping over fallen trunks that blasts and the small fingernail sized discs began slamming into everything around her. One blast struck the ground next to her foot just as she had been about to, momentarily, hide behind a tree, making her jump. Another three hit a tree trunk she had to climb under, only just missing her back. Her heart pounded away like a radio set turned up to its maximum volume within her chest. _Thumpthumpthumpthumpthump_! Adrenaline coursed through her veins like a train going at full speed and more. She had to get out of here, and fast before she ended up as another corpse.

As she ran on through the trees, the shouts of the Kyzua only a few tens of metres behind her, she called out to Derek but got no reply. Her mind began to race with worst case scenarios. What if he had been caught? Or what if he had gotten lost? Either way, it would mean her own mission here was pointless and in vain! And what about the others? Were they okay? Had they run into the Kyzua? If they had not, then were they on their way back to the ring? Surely they must have heard the shooting. Yes, I'm sure they would have! There has to be a chance that they know what's going on!

Another blast struck the branch a few feet to her right, shattering it completely and making Susan, who was taken by surprise, swear loudly. That had been too close! She had to get out of here now! The next one she might not be so lucky on avoiding!

_Good thing my mother didn't hear me just now! _She thought to herself humorously, amazing herself slightly that she could find humour in even the most dangerous of times.

**Meanwhile, out on the ring**

"Link, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just got back here when I heard the shooting just now. You alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Where's Bob?"

"I'm right here!"

Link and Dr Cockroach looked over to the trees to their left and saw their blue friend ooze up to them rather cheerfully.

"You guys find anything on the treasure hunt?!" he asked them eagerly. "I found these!" he added, holding up his hands and revealing a few sticks and leaves. "Aren't they cool?!"

Dr Cockroach rolled his eyes. "Yes, Bob! Fantastic!" he said nonchalantly and scanned the treeline for any sign of Susan; the sounds of the blasts still echoing through the air to them.

Where was Susan? It was obvious she had been found but was she heading back to them or was she running off in another direction? Either way, he could not get it out of his head that she could be hurt or was very soon likely to be so. She had been injured once before by the Kyzua weapons; this time she might not be so lucky in escaping without too much damage! He prayed she would get back to them, but as there was no telling how many Kyzua there were following her and how heavily armed they were it was a fading want of his and the others.

"Hey, look!" Bob suddenly exclaimed, pointing into the trees.

Looking in the direction he had pointed, Dr Cockroach and Link saw two figures approaching them, one being about ten metres or so ahead of the other. As they neared, the sounds of the blasts and other weapons that they had learned were synonymous with Kyzua weaponry increased in volume. Could these two be …?

It was! Pausing a few feet out from the trees to catch his breath, Derek looked up and caught sight of them. Link and Dr Cockroach returned surprised looks at him but Bob put his hands on his side, his way of a human putting his/her hands on their hips, and shot him a disapproving look as if he were something distasteful.

"Well, look _who_ decides to show up!" he said loudly to Derek and turned away from him, folding his arms over his front.

"Derek!" A feminine voice called from behind him, causing him and the others to look back at the trees just as Susan emerged, skidding to a halt to catch her breath and shooting Derek an annoyed look. "Don't wait … up … for me!" she said between breaths and he did not answer her.

"Susan!" Dr Cockroach exclaimed, running towards them with Link in tow. "Come on, we have to go! Now!" he told her.

Glancing at Derek momentarily with a displeased expression, she ran past him towards the others. Derek rolled his eyes at her. Why was she still acting this way? It was _her _fault that they split up! Plus, _she _humiliated _him _that time in Modesto! She should be saying sorry to him! It was what he deserved! Not her acting as if everything was his fault! She was rescuing him too, so she had a duty to make sure he was alright!

"AAAAHHHHHH!"

Wheeling round as if they were in a washing machine, the group saw Derek fall to the ground, writhing in pain on his front, a tear in the back of his coat visible and a small trail of smoke coming up from it. He cried out and tried to move but every time he did so he made it hurt even more as if someone were sticking a red hot iron poker into him.

"Derek! No!" Susan cried fearfully, rushing towards him.

"Susan, wait!" Link cried, grabbing her and pulling her behind a fallen tree trunk. No sooner had he done that when a wall of red and blue blasts flew out above them. "Jeez, Susan, you nearly killed yourself there!" he barked at her angrily.

"Get off me, Link!" Susan growled, pushing him off her. "I have to get Derek before the Kyzua get him!"

"It's too late for that, my dear!" Dr Cockroach told her as he vaulted over the tree trunk onto the ground next to them; Bob following close behind. He took out a 9mm pistol from his pocket and put a clip into it. "Just in case I needed to defend myself." He told the others when they looked at him.

"What about us?" Link asked him.

"It was the only one left,"

CRACK! The branch next to Susan was obliterated by a blast, its pieces flying out in all directions like shrapnel, making her jump. Dr Cockroach looked up from behind the trunk to see a group of about nine Kyzua standing about fifty feet from them, guns raised and fury raging in their eyes. One of them rushed over to the screaming form of Derek and grabbed him and dragged him away by the scruff of his neck. His cries filled the air as his lower back bumped into anything that happened to be in his way as he was pulled away; the Kyzua ignoring him.

"Doc, what is it?" Susan asked him as he hid behind the trunk again, narrowly avoiding another blast that missed his antennae. "Can you see Derek?" she asked.

He nodded but added lowly "They're dragging him away, my dear. We can't save him."

"No!" Susan cried and shot up from the ground, only for Dr Cockroach and Link to grab her and pull her down. Dr Cockroach quickly stood up and fired a shot back at the Kyzua, who dived for cover upon hearing it.

"Link! Get off me!" Susan shouted as she tried to elbow him in the face but he managed to keep a strong grip on her, only irritating her more. "Link, I mean it. If you don't let me go I'll take off the ring!" she warned, shooting him a threatening glare and putting her hand on her finger with the ring.

"Susan, stop!" Link shouted at her. "We can't sit here fighting and it's pointless to go after Derek now!" he told her, trying to make her see reason.

"He's right, Susan," Bob added. "Who needs that jerk anyway!"

Susan growled as she broke free of Link. "Why don't you two shut up?! We need to get him or they'll kill him!"

A few more gunshots rang out next to them as Dr Cockroach fired at the Kyzua again. A brief roar burst out from the group of Kyzua as one of them fell over onto his back and did not rise again, having been hit in the bottom of the neck. When Link and Susan rested their backs against the trunk again, they saw Dr Cockroach drop the gun onto Link's lap and slump down next to them; a look of hopelessness on his face as he slid down to the ground.

"Link, y-you do it! I-I can't …!" he said, trailing off as he buried his head in his knees as he brought them up to his chest.

The others exchanged worried looks with each other, but were snapped out back into reality by a few blasts shattering the top of the trunk. Link cocked the weapon and fired back at the Kyzua, emanating another cry of pain as another Kyzua fell to the ground, dead. Susan crawled over to Dr Cockroach and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Are you okay, doc?" she asked him with a worried tone.

He just replied by looking at her, revealing a look in his eyes that made her heart sink into sadness. They were completely full of sorrow, sadness and loss. Not that she was trying to be a mind reader or anything but she could tell that he was suffering badly from all this. And probably what he had just done now had had some kind of negative effect on him. His physical shaking and quivering of the lip added that feeling to her assumptions too.

"Look!" Bob suddenly exclaimed, pointing up into the sky behind them.

The others looked up at where he was pointing and the Kyzua immediately ceased their firing on them. One of them swore loudly in his native language. Another shouted at the others to run back but they either did not hear him or were too shocked to listen.

A large shape was descending towards them, its outline visible through the clouds and fog that hung in the air. Upon seeing it, their hearts leapt and the Kyzua began running for cover.

"Insecto!" Link exclaimed.

The enormous flying insect roared happily as it touched down on the ground, making it rumble its wingbeats kicking up a lot of snow. He lowered his wings and roared at the others; wanting them to get on; something they wasted no time in doing. As he took off though, Dr Cockroach looked back down at the ground where they and the Kyzua had just been, his advanced eyesight quickly finding the corpse of the Kyzua that was dead, _that he had killed!  
><em>

Just looking at it made him feel sick to his stomach! How could he have done that! He was never the sort of person to do that to another living being. Even when they had been fighting Gallaxhar over a year ago, he had not taken any of their lives despite them trying to kill him. Of course he was trying to defend himself and the others but … but still … it was … it was l-like-

"Hey doc!" Susan's voice snapped him out of his trance as they ascended back into the air and he looked at her to see her giving him a worried expression as she crawled over to him. "Are you okay?"

He did not answer her again but instead looked back down at the ground regretfully.

What had he become now?

Back on the ground, the Kyzua watched them disappear with a myriad of thoughts. Some were too shocked to even speak, one was angry and cursed loudly, another was happy that he had lived. All of them, however, felt exhausted and … well, fed up. They had hoped that the killing or at least capturing of these 'monsters' as the humans called them would put an end to any resistance in this area. Well obviously any hope of that happening now had been ruined completely. Now they were back at square one, _again!_

Their leader barked out a command for them to return to the clearing but as they went, what ran through the minds of all of them were these thoughts.  
><em><br>How long could we last now? When will all of this end? And who's next?_


End file.
